Getting Paid as a Citizen Owner. University Views.

A) University of Maine professor supports this.

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/20/opinion/contributors/alaska%E2%80%99s-permanent-fund-dividend-a-policy-ripe-for-export/

Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend: A policy ripe for export, by Michael Howard, a professor of philosophy at the University of Maine.

"Not conceived as a handout, the dividend embodies the idea that all Alaskans own their resources in common and every person should benefit from these resources. In the form of an unconditional cash payment, the dividend respects the freedom of each person to use it as he or she sees fit. Because everyone has a stake in the dividend, Alaskans are vigilant and hold the fund’s management accountable."

The distribution of oil revenue is one step towards the formation of a citizen-ownership democracy. In a citizen-ownership democracy, all revenue generated from a country's common wealth should be shared directly and equally by all its citizens. A country's common wealth includes oil, minerals, land, sovereign wealth fund and other tangible or intangible assets. I have an example calculation for Singapore, which shows that every citizen of Singapore can receive 1000's of dollars every year from the common wealth.

It is time for political parties to seriously adopt this as their campaign reform.


B) Oxford University academic supports this.

An Oxford thesis argues that Sovereign Wealth Funds should distribute dividends to citizens. This is by Angela Cummine from the University of Oxford. "Thesis Title: A Citizen's Stake in Sovereign Wealth: the Distribution, Investment and Governance of a Nation's Capital" http://oxford.academia.edu/AngelaLydiaCummine

She has an article on this topic:
Overcoming Dividend Skepticism: Why the World's Sovereign Wealth Funds are Not Paying Dividends by Angela Cummine. The article was awarded the 2011 Basic Income Studies Essay Prize.

And the slide presentation is here:
http://oxford.academia.edu/AngelaLydiaCummine/Papers/431133/The_Anti-Dividend_Bias_Why_the_Worlds_Sovereign_Wealth_Funds_are_Not_Paying_Dividends

I hope her proposal gets implemented all over the world. It is time for political parties to propose and adopt a citizen-ownership democracy.