#limitarianism — Public Fediverse posts

@inquiline Dark money is coming out from someone's dark pocket.

Just discovered the term #limitarianism: the idea is that a huge amount of money is not only a selfish wealth but also power against others, and we should limit the maximum amount one can control.

Following the discussion about #WealthTaxes in Gary Stevenson - https://www.channel4.com/press/news/how-get-filthy-rich-gary-stevenson-fronts-new-channel-4-documentary-inequality
(tomorrow on Channel 4 and Sunday on Youtube)

...And many other people's work in #inequality

I was wondering what people feel about Ingrid Robeyns‘ #limitarianism : The Case Against Extreme Wealth...

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2024/02/08/book-review-limitarianism-the-case-against-extreme-wealth-ingrid-robeyns/

Thoughts about a cap on how much one person can own being 10 million maximum? (gbp, eur, usd, or equivalent in your own local currancy)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/17/is-it-bad-that-elon-musk-has-a-trillion-dollars-yes-and-heres-why?CMP=share_btn_url

>> ...we need a paradigm shift when it comes to thinking about the negative effects of extreme wealth concentration. <<

Image: REUTERS/Nathan Howard

#ElonMusk #IngridRobeyns #ExtremeWealth #Limitarianism #IngridRobeyns #Plutocracy #Oligarchy #DistributiveJustice #Politics

#Oligarchy #BillionareClass #ClassWar #GreatDepression #Limitarianism youtube.com/shorts/RPvMi...

The Billionaires! They’re… the...

In 2025, the ONS said that median household disposable income in the UK in 2024 was £36,700. By “disposable income” I presume they effectively mean after tax.

In 2024, there were 28.6 million households and 33.62 million employed people. So we might infer that the median earnings per employed person were £31,220.

Also in 2024, Prof. @ingridrobeyns made the #limitarianism case that, as the Guardian headline put it:

“No one should have more than €10m”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/21/how-much-personal-wealth-is-enough-ingrid-robeyns-limitarianism

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Maxfieldripken/115407811819985195

Check out #limitarianism

“...another personal, ethical limit. That is at 1 million euros. So, for a family, it would be 2 or 4 million euros – ample to live a good life. Why should a person have to have more? The world is on fire and needs a lot of money to put out the fire. The richest possess a lot of money that they don’t need at all. So we should start getting our firewater from the super-rich. Only then from the middle class, and certainly not from the poor.”

https://www.uu.nl/en/in-the-media/what-is-limitarianism-professor-ingrid-robeyns-explains

@MaksiSanctum @GottaLaff
Exactly!
In Dec 2024 Musk owned 410.79 million tesla shares, let's round that down to 400M.
By buying shares for USD 1B his existing shares gained a value of USD 30 per share.
That is 30 x 400M = over USD 12B.
He may use that 12B as a collateral for a bank loan to cover the purchase of these new shares.
So the shares are practically free for him.

Money makes money.

#tesla #TSLA #musk #limitarianism #limitarisme #EatTheRich

"great people" = people good at making money, mainly for themselves but also a small group of others who don't need any more money.

This is the problem with thinking about the economy in terms of GDP: it masks extreme inequalities on which millions suffer.

#Taxation of the super-rich punishes greed not ability. Join the rally: 12 noon, 20 Sept, Portland Place to Westminster. #MakeThemPay

#Limitarianism

https://news.sky.com/story/dont-drive-great-people-away-tory-peer-urges-rachel-reeves-to-think-again-on-tax-rises-13429377

@johnefrancis
I value industrial innovation in the private sector, just keep things within limits.

In addition to your ideas, I'd like to see higher progressive income taxes at the top similar to what the US had in the 50s (Canada too? I can't find out) with 90+% marginal rates at the top, effectively limiting the ratio of income for the top relative to everyone else. I'd also like to see a real progressive wealth tax with safeguards against tax havens.
#limitarianism

This comment on Ingrid Robeyns’ *Limitarianism* is a bit long and academic, but I needed to work it through. On first reading I misunderstood and thought the Ethical Limit was higher than the Riches Line. When I realised the mistake, I had to think hard about where the disagreement lay.

tl;dr = The inference from ‘X is good’ to ‘You ought to do X’ should be challenged. This will result in a less moralistic version of #Limitarianism but the same political conclusions.

https://listed.to/@24601/64583/limitarianism-the-ethical-line-and-moral-perfectionism

Putting an upper limit on the accumulation of wealth

Limitarianism, The Case Against Extreme Wealth, Ingrid Robeyns
>>
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/limitarianism-9781802060478

Tax on the rich!
Can we still take five overseas holidays a year? Whither the lucky country!?!
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jun/02/bad-news-the-communist-albanese-government-is-introducing-a-new-superannuation-tax-on-the-rich
#inequality #wealth #ExtremeWealth #limitarianism #limits #CommonGood #AffordableWayofLife #affordability #TaxonomicInequality

Probably don't need to reiterate it on lefty Mastodon, but the #Trump tariffs are not so that the working class can get back something stolen from it by #globalization but so that the #rich & #oligarch class can avoid having what THEY have stolen reappropriated from them. #Protectionism may have a role in a just #economy but that isn't what this is about. It's dividing the international working class to stop it uniting against the super rich

#inequality #limitarianism #politics

@georgetakei Everyone needs a hobby. They can do what they want to be happy just like anyone else. But their wealth and income above a certain level, should be donated back to society, 100%. They have enough, they 'won' at the economic part of life, and now their succes can strengthen the society that offered them that opportunity, and help others live good lives as well. So no superyachts or private jets, but real contributions to a better world. #limitarianism

🇦🇺AUS introduces bill to limit election donation spending by a single individual to $20,000: #Limitarianism

A 20 minute speech to learn separate the main battle in society: billionaires vs non-billionaires.

The US government is putting up a smoke screen of side issues to cover that battle - terrifying acts and decrees - but side issues nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWf_b-_4uXg

Thanks #BernieSanders for your enlightening speech.

#WealthInequality is the main game. Not only in the US. Everywhere.

ToDo: Limit personal wealth.

I'll be reading #Limitarianism by @ingridrobeyns :
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451473/limitarianism-by-robeyns-ingrid/9781802060478

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1kYmRIJ4U

#TheMarketExit

Why #Billionaires Should Be ILLEGAL

#BillionairesSUCK #Capitalism #WageTheft #ClassWar #WealthAccumulation #ExtremeWealth #Limitarianism #RichAndStupid

@nrc_nl Niemand is selfmade, zeker miljonairs niet. Ze profiteren bijv. van een opleiding, een netwerk, een gezin, alles wat een samenleving hen biedt aan kansen, infrastructuur, arbeidsmarkt, etc. etc. Zonder gebruik en soms ook misbruik van anderen te maken, wordt niemand miljonair. Het is dan ook een verdienste van de maatschappij en de persoon samen. Een twijfelachtige verdienste: de samenleving bepaalt welk gedrag hoe beloond wordt. Maar moeten we dat in deze mate wel willen?#Limitarianism

Limitarianism: why we need to put a cap on the super-rich

Suppose you worked 50 hours a week between the ages of 20 and 65
– week in week out, year in year out
– ❓how much would your hourly wage need to be so that by the end you had amassed Musk’s wealth?

The answer is: $1,871,794 per hour.

💥Almost two million dollars per hour. Every working hour for 45 years.

Elon Musk might be seen as exceptional, but there were 2,668 other billionaires on that Forbeslist.

Together they held $12,700,000,000,000.

Do you, like me, see all those zeros dancing before your eyes?

That’s because we don’t know how to take in that number.

On average the value of their assets is $4.75bn.
If we ask the same question again
– what’s the average lifetime hourly wage?
– we get $40,598 per hour, the equivalent to what many Americans hope to earn in a year.

How much is too much?
When I started this research, 10 years ago, several of my colleagues
– professors in philosophy, economics and related disciplines
– were initially amused that I wanted to delve into this question.
Some argued that #poverty was what mattered, not #inequality.
A few felt that focusing on the rich was an indication of envy on my part.

But I wasn’t alone.
Across various disciplines, scholars were starting to see that something was happening at the upper levels of society,
and we ought to pay attention.
I started to think through the #ethics of extreme wealth concentration in a systematic way,
and after a decade I became convinced that
👉we must create a world in which no one is super-rich
– that there must be a cap on the amount of wealth any one person can have.
❇️I call this #limitarianism.

As a concept, limitarianism is simple.
But what does it mean in practice?

My book endeavours to answer that question, but it can best be understood as a regulative ideal
– an outcome to strive for but which, like the eradication of poverty, is unlikely to be definitively achieved.

In practical terms, limitarianism calls for three kinds of action.
♦️First there is #structural action. Our societies’ key social and economic institutions should give people genuinely equal opportunities, through ❇️affordable childcare, free high-quality education and a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy.
The more structural steps we take to reduce inequality, the less need there will be for the second strategy:

♦️fiscal action.
If taxation were our only tool for achieving a limitarian society,
💥the tax rate would need to be set at 100% for wealth and income beyond a certain point
(spoiler alert: it is not the only tool).
Still, there is a very strong case for imposing a cap on extreme wealth.

The third kind of action limitarianism calls for is
♦️ethical action: we all need to embrace a limitarian ethos.

One objection to this might be that limiting how much wealth a person can accrue would require us to give up private property or the market mechanism, and force us into USSR-style communism.

Such an objection is nonsense,
and it’s probably just another attempt to silence meaningful criticism of the status quo.

Markets are a very powerful tool for securing material welfare;
private property is a cornerstone of our security, autonomy and prosperity.

The real question, which we must seek to answer, is rather which constraints on the market and private property we need if we are to achieve limitarianism.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/21/limitarianism-the-case-against-extreme-wealth-ingrid-robeyns-extract?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

An old, but thought-provoking article:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/30/capitalism-is-killing-the-planet-its-time-to-stop-buying-into-our-own-destruction

#MicroConsumeristBollocks
#limitarianism