What if the total sum of wealth in the world was immediately and simultaneously redistributed equally among the six billion adult people in the world? — Bezz

UBS’s Global Wealth Report puts global wealth at around $450tn, which would mean each adult would get about $75,000. On the day that your proposal goes into effect, five million people would be just a day too young — 17 years and 364 days old — to receive their money. That’s a tough break for them and a strangely invidious situation for such an ostentatiously egalitarian policy.

There are some intriguing practicalities, too. Let’s say you own your own home outright, and that it’s worth $375,000, or five times your share of global wealth. What to do? After the redistribution, you own only 20 per cent of your dwelling, and four other people own the other 80 per cent. Tricky. Now you have to pay rent to a nice family of four who live in Turkmenistan. It might feel awkward but that’s equality for you.