THE GREAT EQUALIZATION

What would actually happen if the world's $570 trillion in wealth were split evenly among every person on Earth?

Each of us would receive somewhere between $62,000 and $98,000 - a life-changing sum in much of the world, a modest cushion in others. The Great Equalization takes this viral thought experiment seriously, tracing the money from the first deposit through a full decade of consequences: the inflationary shock, the spending sprees, the debt payoffs, the small businesses launched and failed, and the slow, stubborn reversion of wealth toward its old shape.

Drawing on real economic data, behavioral finance research, and the Austrian and Chicago schools of economic thought, this book asks the harder question hiding behind the appealing headline number: is wealth a pile you can hand out, or a process you have to build? Through composite case studies, a three-nation comparison, and a detailed year-by-year model, author Robert F. Geissler shows why the fastest-sounding path to equality is so rarely the path that lasts - and what genuinely durable change would actually require.

A rigorous, accessible, and even-handed exploration of money, institutions, and human behavior, for readers of Freakonomics, Poor Economics, and anyone who has ever wondered what they'd really do with a $65,000 check.