USA REMI study: $3,500 citizen dividend for a family of 4, just from carbon tax

Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. (REMI) reported a nation-wide macroeconomic study on the impact of carbon tax with 100% going back as a citizen dividend. (June 2014) This is called the "Fee and Dividend" policy, where use of a resource is charged a fee and the collected fees are distributed to everyone as dividends.

In addition to reporting a long list of benefits, the report highlights the citizen dividend that will result from the carbon tax.

"Size of monthly dividend for a family of 4 with two adults in 2025 = $288, and in 2035 = $396. Annually, this is $3,456 per family of 4 in 2025 ($1152 per capita--children get ½ dividend)."

What is even more significant is that a 100% return of the carbon tax as citizen dividend leads to even more benefits. The report calls this the "double dividend" effect.

This report is very exciting for people proposing a citizen dividend or unconditional basic income for USA. From just one source, carbon tax, the citizen dividend is already a non-insignificant amount. A country has lots and lots of resources. If the fees on all these are added up, the total citizen dividend could be well above the "basic" level.

The full report, and the summary are online.