For the people? What does it mean?

Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

This is a very popular quote from Abraham Lincoln.
But what does it mean? 

For the people?

Every politician will have his favorite idea.

• We tax you to help you.
• We keep your money so that you don't squander it away.
• We build this $1 trillion undersea garden so that people can relax there.
• We send your children to war so that you will have peace.
• We license the Internet so that you can read the right things. 

The best and truly "for the people" idea is the 
unconditional basic income, or unconditional citizen income.

The state common wealth is "for the people", with everyone, really everyone, receiving an equal share every year.

Every citizen gets a direct and substantial monetary benefit from a "for the people" democracy.

Lee Hsien Loong and Citizen-ownership Democracy.

Before the general election in May 2011, Lee Hsien Loong told voters, "Singapore belongs to you." This is reported by Channelnewsasia. (Here is another link from asiaone.)

Abraham Lincoln also said that the United States belong to their people, in his Inaugural address in 1862:

     "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it."

It took the Americans more than 100 years since Lincoln's speech before one state, Alaska, implements true ownership. Residents in Alaska have been getting annual income from being owners of Alaska.

Do Singaporeans have to wait 100 years before they can get annual incomes from being owners of Singapore?

There is hope. There is a world-wide movement for citizen right to a basic income just for being citizens in their countries. Brazil is doing it. Switzerland is doing it. Canada is doing it. Germany Merkel is talking it.  Macau is doing it. Mongolia is doing it. Alaska has already done it.

Even Singapore's neighbor Malaysia is doing it.

Abraham Lincoln and Citizen-ownership Democracy

Abraham Lincoln said this, in his Inaugural address in 1862:

   "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it."

It took the USA a hundred years to start turning this into cold hard cash.

In 1977, the Alaska Permanent Fund started. It is a Fund that gets contribution from part of Alaska's oil revenue, and distributes investment returns to the people who inhabit Alaska.

This is only a first step towards a citizen-ownership democracy, where the people who inhabit the country can claim their rightful revenues from the country's common wealth.