Ingrid Robeyns says something very simple. And it makes a lot of people angry.
There should be a limit to how much wealth one person can have. She calls it limitarianism.
I met her work through her book, when we discussed it in our book podcast. Since then I follow her on LinkedIn. What I admire most is not the idea. It is the way she stands: there is a headwind, people want her silenced, and she keeps teaching, speaking and writing.
Why the idea hurts
Extreme inequality is bad for all of us — including the rich. It hollows out democracy, health and trust. Beyond a certain point, money stops buying happiness and starts buying influence. So a limit is a logical thing to do. Except when you are really wealthy.
Where she draws the line
Robeyns gives two numbers. An ethical limit of around one million per person, in a country with a decent pension system. And a political ambition: no one above ten million.
That is where the resistance starts. One million touches a lot of people — not because they have it, but because they believe they will. That number feels like a promise, even though almost nobody gets there.
Move the line to a hundred million, or a thousand million, and something shifts. Only a handful of people are touched. And the vast majority — 99.9 percent — thinks: yes, of course. Nobody needs a hundred million.
That is not a weakness in her argument. It is a lesson in how change begins: with a line almost everybody can agree on.
For founders
You do not have to wait for a law to answer her question. What is enough for you? Write it down, and decide what the surplus is for.
Then look at your company. Does the value stay with the people who create it? Three ladders: certainty, decision power, and a share. An owner who shares ownership is already living the limit.
The habit
This week, write down your own enough-number. The amount that would make you free, and the amount beyond which more money only adds weight. Say your own line out loud before you argue about someone else’s.
Sources
- Ingrid Robeyns, Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth (Allen Lane, 2024)
- Ingrid Robeyns, “Why Limitarianism”, Journal of Political Philosophy 30(2), 2022
- The Guardian, 21 January 2024 — “‘No one should have more than €10m’: the author of Limitarianism on why the super-rich need to level down radically” — (ethical ~€ 1 mln, political ~€ 10 mln)
- LSE Review of Books, 8 February 2024
- https://decideforimpact.com/limitarisme-boekencast-afl-96/ Episode in book podcast (Dutch)
- Foto: ingridrobeyns.info (eigen website)
