Accepted: 21 September 2022 / Published online: 23 November 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022  Christopher Freiman cafreiman@wm.edu 1 University of Richmond, Richmond, USA 2 College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, USA Wealth Without Limits: in Defense of Billionaires Jessica Flanigan 1  · Christopher Freiman 2 Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2022) 25:755–775 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-022-10327-3 Abstract In this essay we argue against preventing people from amassing extreme wealth via in- creased taxation. The frst argument in favor of such a proposal, recently advanced by Ingrid Robeyns (2018), states that billionaires’ resources would be better spent addressing morally important goals such as meeting disadvantaged people’s needs and solving col- lective action problems. In response to this claim, we argue that billionaires are typically in a better position to beneft the poor and to solve collective action problems than public ofcials. The second argument in favor of preventing extreme wealth accumulation, ad- vanced by Robeyns and Robert Reich (2018), states that billionaires have an inappropri- ate amount of infuence in public life, which undermines political equality. We argue that corporate leaders tend to be more accountable to their fellow citizens than public ofcials. We then consider and criticize the objection that billionaires’ success is typically a result of public investment, which entitles public ofcials to enforce taxes that demand a return on the public investment. Keywords limitarianism · Egalitarianism · Taxation · Distributive justice · Philanthropy · Efective altruism. I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them. So I got rich and gave back. To me that’s the win, win. -Jay-Z. Economic egalitarians often point to the presence of billionaires as evidence that the distribution of resources in society is unacceptably unequal. In their defense, critics of eco- nomic egalitarianism, along with billionaires themselves, reply that billionaires provide 1 3