A distribution rule · not the real world

Forget who owns what. Hand out all the wealth by height.

Line up 2 billion adults in an octagon — its flat bottom edge is a floor a real row of people stands on. Give each person a share set purely by how high up they sit: no two are the same, so every individual has a slightly different wealth. The very bottom is guaranteed a $10,000 minimum; it rises in a straight line to the top. Drag the slider to pick any one of the two billion and read what they get. Raise the floor and the ramp flattens — push it all the way and everyone lands on the equal share of $84,700.

each person = floor + ( $84,700 − floor ) × ( their height ÷ average height )

At your height on the ladder

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Bottom · the minimum

$10,000

the guaranteed floor

Top of the ladder

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World average · mid-height

$84,700

$169T ÷ 2 billion adults

▲ Your position — drag the vertical handle beside the octagon 50% up

Minimum at the bottom — the guaranteed floor $10,000

$0 · no floor$84,700 · everyone equal

If we guaranteed a floor of $10,000 to everyone…

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redistributed from the top to fund the floor

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of the richest 1%'s $215 trillion

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children saved from hunger this yearof 2.4M who die (UNICEF/WHO)

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children put into schoolof 273M out of school (UNESCO 2024)

Real totals: 2.4M child deaths/yr from malnutrition (UNICEF/WHO), 273M children out of school (UNESCO 2024), ~$50 to treat a child for severe malnutrition, richest 1% ≈ $215 trillion (UBS). Lives saved rise as the floor clears survival (~$20k); full schooling only as the floor nears the equal share. A thought experiment, not a forecast — move the floor and watch it change.

A thought experiment, not a description of reality. Each person's share depends only on their height on the Y-axis — nobody is sorted into brackets or tiers, and how many people sit at any level doesn't enter the formula; the shape is just the container. The share runs in a straight line from the floor at the bottom to 2× the average − floor at the top, so the exact middle receives the average of $84,700. This model uses 2 billion adults at an $84,700 average (≈ $169 trillion total); the real world holds ~5.4 billion adults and $454 trillion (UBS Global Wealth Report 2023).