Let’s say the UN came together to enact a worldwide rule of sorts called the Humble Act Treaty.
What this does is to render the rich and famous to live below their means. That means that millionaires to billionaires are NOT allowed to dwell in fancy mansions, buy luxury cars, luxury designer fashion, and do anything expensive fancy, in terms of buying/spending. So, that means they can still have the job that comes with being wealthy, but are forbidden to live the lifestyle, in regards to spending and buying. This is everlasting. This also applies to high ranking government members along with the people who run the nation (monarchies are erased making way for presidents). So, presidents are given tiny freebies, but then once their term ends, they’ll have to return to their life, yet with a bigger pay grade.
Here are some things that are also discussed:
The only way a rich person can buy a larger home is if they have a large family already, even then it isn’t a mansion, but rather a large house.
Buying more than two cars is strictly not allowed, unless they have children, then three cars are allowed and only three.
Paparazzi/tabloids don’t exist anymore, in terms of showcasing the rich lifestyle for profit.
There is plenty more to add, but overall thoughts and feelings?
NOTE: This is a fake scenario, this will never happen and we all know that. Ask questions and give answers if you truly desire, just know this is all pretend.
Once upon a time I was thinking of writing a book where aliens came from another planet with a device that cured all known disease, affliction and infirmity including the aging process, but you had to pay for it with your behavior, not with cash or gold, etc. They wouldn’t share it with anyone who didn’t breed sustainably and live sustainably, so no one could live at a level higher than, say, the equivalent of an upper-middle class American today. No private jets, no vast estates like Elton John’s castles or Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, etc. And no more than two children per couple. And you couldn’t have it if you’d committed a felony, and they had the ability to time travel so they knew if you’d murdered someone, etc. I’m thinking it was a computer that evaluated each person’s life, because an alien had been traumatized by seeing someone’s past act of cruelty to a child or something, I can’t remember.
I think the aliens put a cap on capitalism too, if I remember correctly, so that no one could earn more than 10 million euros or the equivalent. Everything you earned above and beyond that went into a public trust that paid for schools, libraries, garbage collection, firefighters, etc. So no one could create a mega corporation like Amazon anymore.
I wonder what happened to that? Must be in my unwritten fics folder, but I haven’t gone through that in years. Are you thinking of using this scenario in your current world-building?
What would be the point of doing this if they are still allowed to hoard wealth? At least when they spend it on stupid expensive houses and cars and things, some of it goes back into the economy and stimulates it. If they’re just keeping the money and not allowed to spend it, that’s going to kill the economy even faster and people are going to suffer even more than they already are financially. There’s no benefit to a system like this.
The Humble Act would be an entertaining way to see the UN disbanded overnight. For that alone it’s got my vote.
And money will not stay evenly distributed for long. A joke about the Stock Market: What happens when someone with lots of money and no experience meets someone with lots of experience and no money? The person with the money gets the experience, and the person with the experience gets the money.
A better solution to the world’s issues would be to create a super-abundance of all resources. Personal ASI assistants, consumer (hobbyist) level organic 3D-printing, Nano-medicine, asteroid mining, space colonization, faster-than-light travel, etc. The rich will not be directly threaten and they can keep their wealth because it’s irrelevant, the Market has moved on.
This would also solve humanity’s eggs in one basket problem. If the sun detonates into a super nova, or collapses into a black hole, personal wealth and sustainable living no longer matter…Matter no longer matters…
i’m very anti this scenario. it wouldn’t work and no one would be happy. theoretical or not, the solution will always be tax the rich and simply stop putting them on a pedestal. as in, sure, let them own seventy mansions who cares, but stop prioritizing them in terms of benefits and letting them get away with stuff. you can own seventy mansions but if you fail to properly pay all of their property taxes? appropriate repercussions that everyone else would face. this scenario, as others have mentioned, would allow the amassment of wealth instead of it being redistributed back into the economy. at the end of the day, rich people are usually horrible, but they love spending their money, and spending money usually means other people getting paid, thus hopefully people who actually need/deserve the money getting it. but overall, still, just tax the rich. tax them to the moon.
I’d see a failing of monetary circulation with the poorest getting no more richer, and the rich accumulating more wealth than they would be allowed to spend… Thus stalling the monetary circulation and failing in a dystopian crashing of markets…