If everybody starts to share their wealth with other people, will it affect the economy?

Question

I know that merely printing money will cause inflation like it is happening now in Zimbabwe. But there are a lot of rich people in this world who have more money than they will ever need. What will happen if they start distributing their wealth to the needy? Then people will start to buy things they normally would not have been able to afford.

There may not be enough money for everybody in this world, but then there may not be enought things for everybody, right? For example, not enough cars for every person on earth.

So I don't want to know whether helping the poor is right or wrong. What I want to know is, whether it is going to affect the economy when done on a large scale?

Answer 1

The effect on the economy of the rich subsidizing the poor:

I suspect we see less poverty, less malnurishment, less people ding from lack of basic health care, etc.

Perhaps also, a decrease in yacht manufacturing, but increase in medical and farming jobs, not a bad trade off in my opinion.

Answer 2

People do that all the time now. what do you think the effect to date has been?

Answer 3

Giving out money for free without people doing anything to earn it usually discourages these people from working hard in order to support themselves.  This results in decreased production of goods, rising prices, and devaluation of the money through price inflation.  The poor people often end up even more poor as a result of such help.

The only kind of help that works well in the long run is one that encourages and enables the poor people to work more and better than before.   Because then these people produce more goods for each other and for trade with others.  And there is no natural end to their increased prosperity.   It can continue indefinitely.