How much money is too much money? Most liberal theorists talk about the need to alleviate poverty, but if you're serious about addressing

inequality, shouldn't there be a cap on how much one person can have? I'm joined by Ingrid Robbins, a philosopher by trade, to talk about

her new book Limitarianism, the idea that for the good of everyone, we need to put a hard limit on how much people can hoard.

Ingrid, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me here.

You spend a lot of time in the book reassuring people that you're not a communist what's wrong with us?

Yes so I tend to then ask what's your definition of communism so I do think I say

explicitly USSR style communism. I don't believe in that kind of system also because most importantly it was politically oppressive.

But I'm also, so that is the honest answer, but I'm also trying to take people along with me.

So, yeah. So I also think I would like to have and I can have an academia an honest discussion about different economic systems and so for example there is among philosophers a whole debate about democratic socialism and different types of economic

systems but I fear that if I were to say on the first page let's have a discussion about all the different economic systems that are conceivable,

I will lose so many of the readers. And my goal with this book has really been to try to reach as many people as possible, because I do think we really have a political

a political urgency right now.

So is it about getting a fair hearing

that if you were to say, okay, I reject the USSR

style communism, but I do believe that certain things should be

communally owned. The market isn't a good way to distribute resources, that there should be a movement

of the working class.

You're saying, if I say these things, people will write me off.

Yeah, and I do say, that's also why I put in the introduction

two kind of objections I've received.

One is that it's not just me but people who make this kind of argument for limits to wealth either we're jealous and so that's why we shouldn't be taken seriously or we're communists and that's why we shouldn't be taken seriously.

...