<p>In one fiction series about a dystopian world, a small group of wealthy criminals owned a large fraction of the world's cash, which was on their bank accounts in a single offshore bank. In the happy end, heroes were able to steal the money belonging to these wealthy criminals and distribute it equally among everyone in the world. After the transfer, everybody in the world got its share on their own bank account.</p>
<p>What would happen to the economy in 1 month if this was the case? And in 1 year?</p>
<p>To me, intuitively, it feels that it just leads to inflation and after a period of turbulence the prices are going to stabilize at a level where everybody is poor again.</p>
<p>However, I'm not an expert. It would be interesting to know about the driving factors of this turbulence as well, and if something like this happened in the past history?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T08:49:31.570Z
There is no historical reference for these kinds of almost magical situations, so any answer would be very opinion-based.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T08:56:31.227Z
@Giskard If Olivier Blanchard posted his opinion here, would that be bad?
Rodrigo de Azevedo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T09:52:56.413Z
@RodrigodeAzevedo Yes. The SE format is not for speculative opinions. If he posted a reasoning based on data/models/research where people can judge the merits of the answer rather than vote on it based on sympathy/name recognition, that would be fine.
Giskard
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2020-09-08T11:04:49.683Z
@Giskard this particular stack is full of "what would be the consequences if X happened?"
Criticize SE actions means ban
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T11:34:11.033Z
@user253751 Question is, is X an "*almost magical situation*" with "*no historical reference*" or is it similar to something we have experience with?
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T11:36:37.477Z
@Giskard Feel free to treat it as "what would happen if Jeff Bezos had a huge pile of cash and it was seized and redistributed?"
Criticize SE actions means ban
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T12:48:27.073Z
@user253751 I do not, as that is not the question. If you want to, you can argue for your vision on meta.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T15:08:03.297Z
@Giskard that is literally the question, except I changed a hypothetical "small group of wealthy criminals" to a real person (Jeff Bezos).
Criticize SE actions means ban
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-08T15:26:49.283Z
@user253751 Let us agree to disagree, as reasonable people sometimes do.
Giskard
<macroeconomics><inflation><supply-and-demand><monetary-policy><money-supply>
How would a global Robin Hood deed affect the economy?
battlmonstr
# How would a global Robin Hood deed affect the economy?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-07)

In one fiction series about a dystopian world, a small group of wealthy criminals owned a large fraction of the world's cash, which was on their bank accounts in a single offshore bank. In the happy end, heroes were able to steal the money belonging to these wealthy criminals and distribute it equally among everyone in the world. After the transfer, everybody in the world got its share on their own bank account.

What would happen to the economy in 1 month if this was the case? And in 1 year?

To me, intuitively, it feels that it just leads to inflation and after a period of turbulence the prices are going to stabilize at a level where everybody is poor again.

However, I'm not an expert. It would be interesting to know about the driving factors of this turbulence as well, and if something like this happened in the past history?

**Tags:** macroeconomics, inflation, supply-and-demand, monetary-policy, money-supply

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is no historical reference for these kinds of almost magical situations, so any answer would be very opinion-based.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 If Olivier Blanchard posted his opinion here, would that be bad?  
> **username_1**: @username_2 Yes. The SE format is not for speculative opinions. If he posted a reasoning based on data/models/research where people can judge the merits of the answer rather than vote on it based on sympathy/name recognition, that would be fine.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 this particular stack is full of "what would be the consequences if X happened?"  
> **username_1**: @user253751 Question is, is X an "*almost magical situation*" with "*no historical reference*" or is it similar to something we have experience with?  
> **username_3**: @username_1 Feel free to treat it as "what would happen if Jeff Bezos had a huge pile of cash and it was seized and redistributed?"  
> **username_1**: @user253751 I do not, as that is not the question. If you want to, you can argue for your vision on meta.  
> **username_3**: @username_1 that is literally the question, except I changed a hypothetical "small group of wealthy criminals" to a real person (Jeff Bezos).  
> **username_1**: @user253751 Let us agree to disagree, as reasonable people sometimes do.  

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## 0 answers

