If the top 1% of the population has more than 50% of the worlds wealth, why can’t the other 99% just take it from them?

Question

Edit: I did not literally mean going to rich people’s houses and rob the money.
But to just pass a law that takes most of their money and redistributes it.

In: Economics

Answer 1

It has been tried. It was called communism, and all that happened was that a few persons that ran the government got all the wealth, and the rest of the people became even poorer.

Those that ran the government used the army and police – who they paid adequately and disciplined harshly enough so they would obey – to prevent the people from rebelling against them.