How much would Huey Long's Share Our Wealth Plan have lowered inequality?

How much would Huey Long's Share Our Wealth Plan have lowered inequality? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article How much would Huey Long's Share Our Wealth Plan have lowered inequality? Gabriel Mathy This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4094323/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Huey Long proposed a radical plan for wealth and income distribution, called the “Share Our Wealth” Plan. This was intended to end the Great Depression by imposing 100% taxes on income and wealth above a cap and to use that revenue to provide for a guaranteed minimum income and wealth, among other policies. I estimate the impact of these policies had they been implemented in a counterfactual United States of 1934. The largest impact on inequality comes from the cap on wealth, which makes the wealth of the very rich both lower and perfectly equal. However, wealth and income ceilings do nothing to reduce poverty or to improve the condition of the non-rich. Minimum income and wealth floors reduce inequality much less, but are much more effective at reducing poverty. However, the minimum income and wealth policies would require significant revenues to implement, which could not be funded by maximum income or wealth caps, which would raise little revenue. JEL Codes: D31, D63, H23 Inequality Redistribution Guaranteed Income Huey Long Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4094323","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":281225417,"identity":"ead95823-0ff0-4dc9-9725-d52cab2e5214","order_by":0,"name":"Gabriel Mathy","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNgaGChDN2ADhHyCogxmo5QzJWhjbkAUIadFtP3/sMe88u2h+6cONH37uYJDju5GAX4vZmWR2Y95tybkz+xKbJXvPMBhLEtRyIJlNmncbc+6GM0Dn8bYxJG4gqOX8Y6CWOfW5+4FaGP+2MdQT1nIDZEvD4dwNPIxtzEBbEgwIa3lsJjnn2PHcGWcYm6Vl2yQMZ555QMhhic8k3tRU5/b3sD/8+LbNRp7vOAFbQICJB8GWIKwcBBh/EKduFIyCUTAKRioAAO9jRSc6syPkAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"American University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gabriel","middleName":"","lastName":"Mathy","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-03-13 15:32:57","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4094323/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4094323/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":54434548,"identity":"1fd70e03-d300-4c8f-b5ce-d2ca2e8dbe90","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-10 12:41:49","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":722742,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"hueyunequalmanuscriptjei.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4094323/v1_covered_93a5c69c-abb6-42b2-8a3c-3942ff1379e7.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"How much would Huey Long's Share Our Wealth Plan have lowered inequality?","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Inequality, Redistribution, Guaranteed Income, Huey Long","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4094323/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4094323/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHuey Long proposed a radical plan for wealth and income distribution, called the “Share Our Wealth” Plan. This was intended to end the Great Depression by imposing 100% taxes on income and wealth above a cap and to use that revenue to provide for a guaranteed minimum income and wealth, among other policies. I estimate the impact of these policies had they been implemented in a counterfactual United States of 1934. The largest impact on inequality comes from the cap on wealth, which makes the wealth of the very rich both lower and perfectly equal. However, wealth and income ceilings do nothing to reduce poverty or to improve the condition of the non-rich. Minimum income and wealth floors reduce inequality much less, but are much more effective at reducing poverty. 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