Notes from this talk organised by KCL’s Policy Institute:
Ingrid Robeyns #Limitarianism: the view that there should be an upper limit to how much personal wealth a person is allowed to accumulate. See: Having Too Much.
- The super rich are not happier, on the contrary.
- They are bad for the environment.
- A moral lower limit after which you are personal responsible to do something with your money that benefits society. £1 million.
- An upper limit enforced politically. £10 million.
- Aligned with Piketty and Zucman: shifting the tax base from labour to capital, closing tax heavens, progressive taxation.
- Limitarianism: outcomes-oriented, Rawls’ third principle.
“Enough: Why it’s time to abolish the super-rich” by Luke Hildyard, kind of right wing-ish.
- Not a catastrophe if the super rich leave.
- Not proportional to the benefit they bring, even to their corporations, e.g. weak correlation between CEO pay and company performance.
- Not hurting them at all if they are not allowed to accumulate.
- Redistribution and pre-distribution
- Not anti-growth but not dependent on growth
- Not especially left wing
Graham Hobson ― from Patriotic Millionaires Graham is a technologist who founded Photobox in 2000, growing it to become Europe’s largest personalisation company. He now advises on growth and entrepreneurship, and works pro-bono in the areas of social impact, climate change and under-represented founders.
- Quotes Gary Stevensonon inequality.