Jun 15, 2014

BBC Viewpoints: What should capitalism do? Citizen dividend!

BBC Viewpoints: What should capitalism do?

How can capitalism become more inclusive?

This is the answer by Clive Menzies, Critical Thinking
 "The means to life cannot be conditional on paid employment but is a right for all and must be provided in the form of an unconditional citizens dividend sufficient for a decent life."
"Private capture of the value of land, resources and other commons (such as water, the radio spectrum, genes, nature and knowledge), gifts from nature (or God), the value of which is communally created. The value of these must be shared for the good of all to fund public services and an unconditional citizens dividend."
A citizen dividend belongs to citizens because it's their right from ownership of the country. The return of citizen dividend to citizens is very inclusive capitalism. Every citizen becomes a capitalist, owning an equal share of the country's resources (land, sovereign wealth fund, etc.).

But the idea of using resources value for public services is really bad. Politicians will use all resources for "public services" leaving nothing for citizen dividend. There are already many such examples around the world (Alberta, Mongolia, UK). Alaska, the famous example of a citizen dividend, suffers low dividend because most of the resources value goes to the state budget. See 
"Reforming Alberta's Heritage Fund: Lessons from Alaska and Norway".

The resource values should go fully to a citizen dividend. In this way, the citizen dividend will be big enough for an unconditional basic income that will meet basic living expenses.

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