Share Alliance

There are two great imbalances which define the global economy: they are both getting worse, and they both represent humanity's failure to deliver equitable participation for all, as defined by Thomas Jefferson’s ‘self-evident truths’: that all are created equal, and with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The first great imbalance is wealth polarisation. Individuals who own assets, when compared with those who do not, have better health, lower mortality, higher marital stability, less domestic violence and better educational outcomes for their children. However, when the poorest 40.7% of the world's adult population owns just 0.6% of its total wealth, and while the wealthiest 31 people own 30% more wealth than that of the poorest 1.55 billion adults combined, the impact of this imbalance is clear.

The second great imbalance is inter-generational. Young people are getting poorer while old people are getting richer; and, apart from within families, there is no attempt to endow these billions of young people across the world with some of the inheritance left behind by wealthy old people when they die. The poorest regions of the world are Africa, India and South America, with median ages of 19.5, 29 and 33.5 respectively. The richest regions are North America, Europe and Australasia, with median ages of 38.9, 43.1 & 38 respectively.

However, when governments in wealthy regions apply what they describe as progressive taxation, all they are doing is to enable publicly-funded and often universal welfare services for their own populations, usually focused on the elderly (and therefore more wealthy) segments. They are therefore just diverting resources which could otherwise be used to tackle these two great global imbalances.

Share Alliance is a charity focused on research, education, advocacy and implementation which is seeking to change the world’s economic systems. The two main political alternatives for these at present are socialism and capitalism. The former sees state pooling and control as the way forward, and it therefore takes away individual freedom; the second generates growth, but it delivers wealth concentration rather than individual empowerment for all.

However, there are ways to deliver Thomas Jefferson's self-evident truths for all, while avoiding the siren calls of state intervention and intermediation. These are based on the principles of individual ownership and participation for all (rather than subservience). In particular, empowerment of younger generations through the provision of resources and life skills is at the heart of Share Alliance’s vision for a new world order.

Share Alliance started its research work in Cambridge in Autumn 2022, and it has made significant progress over the past three and a half years. Its two main areas of investigation are inter-generational rebalancing, in which it has drawn extensively from the experience of The Share Foundation within the United Kingdom, and ‘Stock for Data and Creativity’.

A close link has been maintained with Kings College, Cambridge and the Faculty of Economics throughout this period, and this has culminated in the Inter-generational Rebalancing Conference at the Institute for Fiscal Studies on 14/15 May 2026. The presentations from the conference are available via the ‘Advocacy’ page and a summary report of proceedings is included.

The ‘Stock for Data and Creativity’ theme of our work has been delivered by Dr. Heloïse Greeff, a research fellow from Oxford, whose initial report was delivered in 2024. During 2025/26, our focus has moved to economic modelling, and a major research project has been undertaken with Capital Economics.

This element of our work is at a considerably earlier stage than inter-generational rebalancing in terms of societal readiness, but we are approaching the stage where pilot operations can be discussed. Because it not only addresses participation in wealth creation but also provides widespread involvement in corporate governance, the concept answers many of the concerns raised in Pope Leo XXIV’s recent Encyclical on Artificial Intelligence.

Looking Forwards 

The Inter-generational Rebalancing Conference has been particularly useful in helping us to plan the way forward. Research provides the academic rigour on which education, advocacy and implementation can be based and, during 2026/27, we will start moving towards taking both of our main themes forwards in these respects.

In the case of inter-generational rebalancing, we will continue to monitor the progress of The Share Foundation closely within the United Kingdom, particularly insofar as its research into incentivised learning is concerned. Meanwhile the Dell Foundation initiative in the United States for supporting disadvantaged young people with starter capital accounts will provide a useful alternative model.

Share Alliance will explore the establishment of links between philanthropists in wealthy regions such as North America and Europe and disadvantaged young people in Africa, particularly exploring the possibility of working with media and banking corporations in order to help construct such a bridge. We will also continue to explore the opportunities for improved global governance, notwithstanding the significant cuts in Official Development Assistance in recent years.

We will meanwhile look to open up a wide range of debate regarding ‘Stock for Data and Creativity’, using the Capital Economics economic modelling research to provide evidence of its effectiveness. We will explore the potential for working with India’s Universal Payments Interface (UPI) to deliver an operational pilot programme, and we will seek to engage with OECD and the Vatican in order to establish this concept as a valid alternative, or supplement, to Universal Basic Income. There will continue to be an emphasis towards young adults in our work in this area, since their employment prospects are the most affected by the challenge of Artificial Intelligence.

In order to provide an effective vehicle for taking forward this work, we plan to re-shape Share Alliance as an educational institute, hopefully re-naming the charity as Share Institute and expanding our board of trustees. We look forward to building an effective online and broadcast educational institute with training through streamed and podcast delivery and online certification. We will also consult with international and regional organisations to build on progress that has already been achieved, such as OECD’s analysis of inheritance levies across the world and the Universal Payments Interface.