I’m currently reading Für einen ökologischen Sozialismus by Thomas Piketty. I’ve already written about it several times — most recently yesterday. One idea has stayed with me and keeps glowing in my mind 💡
👉 young people should receive start-up capital, so their lives are not a lottery of birth.
In the French context, Piketty talks about a sum of around €120,000 at the age of 25. Strong. Rational. Fair. But at the same time… deeply provincial.
So I thought it through and recalculated it globally (see table).
👉 According to this key, every young person would receive between 40 – 105,000 € upon turning 25 ❤️
🌐 WHY ONLY EUROPE?
Most young people today do not live in Berlin, Paris, Bratislava, or Vienna. They live in Africa and in poorer parts of Asia.
👉 That’s where the greatest human potential is.
👉 That’s where the greatest possible growth in well-being lies.
👉 And that’s exactly where people are held back today by a lack of capital, not a lack of ability.
If we take equality of opportunity seriously, we must think globally 🌍
💸 GLOBAL START-UP CAPITAL – NOT INHERITANCE
This is not inheritance. Young people inherit nothing.
It is society’s capital, invested in people so they can:
- have a home 🏠
- get an education 🎓
- start businesses 🤝
- live productive and dignified lives
Let’s call it what it really is:
👉 a global start-up capital for every person at the age of 25
📊 NOW THE HARD NUMBERS (NO IDEOLOGY)
Global private wealth today is roughly €450 trillion.
If we redirected 2% of it per year:
- every 25-year-old would receive a real start in life
- in poorer countries, roughly €40–50k (in purchasing power)
- in richer countries, around €100k
- differences would not be 700-fold, but 2–3-fold
👉 Mathematically entirely feasible.
👉 Economically sustainable.
🌱 WHAT THIS WOULD SOLVE
✔️ break inherited poverty ❤️
✔️ reduce forced migration ❤️
✔️ increase global stability ❤️
✔️ unleash growth where it is currently blocked ❤️
✔️ and best of all — in the long run, the resources would come back to us ❤️
This is not a zero-sum game.
It’s a global investment with enormous returns 📈
🧠 “WE CAN’T AFFORD IT”? REALLY?
Globally, around €3 trillion a year goes to armaments 💣
— to preparing for mutual killing 🤦
But when it comes to ensuring that people:
- have somewhere to live
- have a chance to develop their talents
- don’t live in permanent fear
…suddenly “it can’t be done”?
👉 The resources exist.
👉 What’s missing is political courage and civilizational imagination.
🧬 WE ARE ONE SPECIES. ONE SYSTEM. ONE FUTURE.
We are not isolated islands. We are not “self-made” beings.
We are one biological species, interconnected far more than we like to admit 🌌
If we want:
- technological progress
- ecological transformation
- a future beyond this planet 🚀
…then we must learn to cooperate, not destroy one another economically 😡
✊ NO-BULLSHIT CONCLUSION
If humanity cannot redirect 2% of its wealth so that every young person gets a fair global start, then the problem is not economic.
It is civilizational ☝️
Either we start behaving like a global civilization,
or we will endlessly keep extinguishing the consequences of the inequality we ourselves create 🔥
