You may never have heard of Ingrid Robyns, a Belgian philosopher known in certain circles for her ideas on wealth including limiting how much a person ought to have. She’s interested in inequality and how the wealth disparity in a society affects the lives of so many people. Her ideas are sometimes referred to as Limitarianism. To her, who is also an expert on ethics, there is an ethical issue involved in a few having so much when so many have little. In a recent post she suggests a limit of $20 million per person.
One does not have to agree with her limit, or even her thesis on limiting wealth, to realize that we live in times when too few own too much. Do the Jeff Bezos, Elon Musks or Mark Zuckerbergs need the wealth they have? That’ s a question whose answer might bring unusual unity as a resounding no. Robyn suggests doing good with one’s wealth, and it’s difficult for someone like me not to agree. To be fair though it is not as simple as it appears. Elon Musk’s obsession with colonizing Mars is his idea of doing good, and one must admit that advancing the cause of self-driving cars is a boon.
The point to me is not to quibble over numbers or observing certain ideas to the letter but to discover a moral balance, one that prevents the abuses of extremes and safeguards the welfare of others, especially those in need.
That eventually involves all of us.