If all the wealth in the UK were split evenly amongst inhabitants...

[eurasa]

Where would we all sit?

If the assets/money of the 68 million inhabitants were collated and split between us all (for arguments sake let's say adults only, but trying not to get into the tiny specific semantics here), how much would we all get?

There are so many people with no assets and living in poverty, but then there are a number of people with such outrageous wealth.

I guess I'm asking where the mean would come out at.

(Just following a conversation between DH and I, who don't know economics enough to make a good suggestion! Not a journalist!)

It’s an interesting thought experiment. But because houses in UK worth so much it’s not as though everyone will be given cash. £300,000 doesn’t even buy decent house in many places. I wonder if anyone has tried this as an experiment on small group and what happened?
It feels as though many people are so tired of capitalism and the selfishness, rich/poor divide it seems to bring. Do you think there is a way we could live where wealth is held in communities rather than individuals so we can be ‘wealthy’ in local resources like green spaces, facilities, high quality air, water, leisure spaces but don’t need to just own these for ourselves, e.g. don’t need to become mortgage slave to have big garden because everyone gets an allotment to grow veg and shares woods, fields, lakes for,play/leisure. Would it work?

communist?
you mean?
To tell you a truth, euro countries including the UK, are half communist.
working people paying high taxes to feed the people not working (for many reasons I know)
BUT, businessmen only pay low taxes. (that's the part we get mad)
~
meanwhile, everyone thought china is communist.
NO, not at all.
they don't care about the weaker at all.
people who don't work (no matter what reason) are F up. chinese gov no support for them.

The Rich/Poor system beats the poor/poor system everytime

I saw a Twitter thread a while back where a mathematician had done a similar thing based on the net worth of Elon Musk. It was something like: if he gave $1 million to every adult on the planet, it would still only amount to about 8% of his net worth 😳🤯

You'll find that the nordics are pretty good at practicing socialist like policy.

Unlike UK or America where it's socialism for the rich (bank bailouts, corporate tax avoidance made easy) but capitalism for the rest of us.

I don't oppose a free market but nordics have it right - private companies have to compete with a government who is willing to provide people with a quality of life, high education standards, etc. Companies have to be attractive employers and not just exploit.

Their taxes are high but go to the right places and people there are happy to pay these high taxes.

It's a much better system.

Was it Norway who created a wealth fund and have put all their oil reserve profits into since the 70’s - knowing that it was a finite resource?

Whereas we spent ours annually.

Thats the difference in thinking - and we are decades behind.

and that’s communion 2.0 - where the problem is the Uber wealthy who will do anything to get richer - and they still don’t give a shT about anyone else and they have buddied up to those in charge to ensure they know how to play the game and keep ahead. *

You're very quick to ascribe the worst motivations to people. There will always be some venal, exploitative people: that could probably be dealt with. Pol Pot had his ways. But there will always be people who come out ahead because they have skills or talents that other people are willing to pay — musicians, say. Although I suppose in any good-old totalitarian state entertainment would be state controlled...

How do you plan to tackle health inequality in this totally equal new state? Some people go through their lives barely requiring medical care. Others need it for years. What would you do about a former friend of mine who has been in a minimally conscious state for the last 12 years after a car accident. I understand her 24/7 care costs the state £200+k per annum. She is one of a surprising number. Do you cull them all after a year?

By the same logic we can pool with Norway are ask them to redistribute their wealth, because we spent ours and they kept theirs, so theirs is fair game now.

Dare I ask what happens to sick people in China or will it give me sleepless nights.

Agree Nordic system seems best but they have a very small population to care for and of course Norway have all the oil money to play with

In my experience, especially in young people, the hardest workers come from backgrounds where there isn’t wealth. Kids I know with rich parents-very few actually work hard-the rest either dabble in a bit of part time dog walking or want to do something ‘creative’ or game all day because they have the unlimited bank of mummy and daddy.

It would be pointless, wasteful and unfair. It is well-evidenced that communism is not a successful economic model.

That’s the thinking we have these days.

some people will think you are actually being serious lol.

This is correct as far as it goes but to be completely accurate you could say that Westminster spent Scotland's annually.

Yes this is an issue some people need a lot more healthcare

Plus in reality some would take the initial funds and run with it and grow it as they could before

Others would run out and no back up

Most wealth driving U.K. is from SE / London so Scotland too spends that annually

But I'm kind of guessing these wealthy people who wouldn't bother unless they are paid millions are totally outnumbered by people like nurses, doctors, social workers, charity workers, teachers as well as carers, cleaners and countless other people who work incredibly hard for relatively little recompense? So that argument doesn't really hold water, does it?

There's no oil in London.

There’s wealth which is redistributed. You spend it there too.

It's a better system because it can afford to be. Norway has a population around the size of Scotland: it was a poor nation that has been transformed by oil revenue. It earned £140 billion from oil in 2021 — the highest amount ever. For decades it's had a surplus income which it invests in its sovereign wealth fund, now worth more than 1 trillion.

Norway and the UK had almost equal shares of the oil and gas in the North Sea. The Norwegians took a state-led approach and created a publicly-owned government organisation, Statoil, which channelled all the profits back to the state. In the UK under Margaret Thatcher the oil and gas were extracted by private companies like BP and the profits went to shareholders. The UK had a population 10 or 12 times larger than Norway, so individuals here in the UK were never going to benefit to anything like the extent that Norwegians did. Norwegians got very lucky: massive resources, small population, government that handled it well. Of course it's now pretty right-wing there and inequality is rising.

But if you only had £200k and you needed to employ carers or a cleaner you'd be down to nothing in five years, wouldn't you? So no one would employ people unless they absolutely had to, or unless they were entrepreneurial and there was profit involved in employing people. And there we go, back to rich and poor again.

So around £300,000 per person then an annual income of £32,000? Ish ?
that’s amazing. Really eye opening.
Also, I guess if everyone had the same amount, the housing market would readjust too.
its a lot of money, a good quality of life. Great question op.

Exactly, this thread is hysterical

Op: can anyone tell me the mean av wealth, DH abd I were talking about it.
Replies: not all poor people are worm shy, no way would rich people do that, Omg you want to bring in communism, it's all about inheritance, Omg what happens a month later!!

That’s true.

the 2021 £3.2billion Scottish oil revenues was indeed spent by Westminster - although I’m unaware of what value was sent to the Scottish parliament to spend. A Bit sad considering I’m Scottish lol.

However when you consider that the uk Welfare budget is over £200bln annually, you can see why the SNP budgeting starts to crack under scrutiny - again im not sure what proportion of that is spent in/sent to Scotland, but on the basis it’s a conservative 10% of the total, we might get that oil revenue back 3 times over.

The UK also used the oil money to fund the tax cuts that built London into the financial centre it is:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19716393.actually-happened-scotlands-trillions-north-sea-oil-boom/

So you only want one type of answer

You can just reply with the figure you think the op wants and not bother with the rest