Every citizen in the world should see this. Part 3. Oil2Cash

Todd Moss: Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse through Cash Transfers

Center for Global Development

This video shows why it is important for citizens to demand dividends from their countries' oil wealth. The idea is applicable to all other commonly-owned properties, whether sovereign wealth fund, gold mine, diamond mine, wireless channels, water or land.

However, it should not be up to the politicians' good grace to throw out some miserly amount. Citizens own 100% of that pot of revenue.  100% should be returned to citizens.

Citizens should think of 

Oil 2 Cash

Citizen-Ownership 2 Cash

Related Posts:

Every citizen in the world should read this. Part II

Part I is here.


Follow-up (July 2014).
Please click on the Oil2Cash label to see other posts about Oil2Cash.

UBI for Brazil: The answer to Pope Francis' call

Pope sends message of hope to Brazil's poor.

Pope Francis tells slum dwellers of Manguinhos that world's rich must do much more to wipe out vast inequalities.

"No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world," he said.

Brazilians can help themselves by reactivating their universal basic income. UBI.

Brazil passed an unconditional basic income law in 2004 but until today has not begun any unconditional basic income distribution. In contrast to the slow progress in Brazil, Mongolia passed their citizen ownership dividend law in 2009 (Human Development Fund) and has been paying citizen dividend since then.

"In Brazil, President Lula´s law 10,835 from 2004 says that “A monthly benefit enough for the basic needs of a person will be paid equally to all.  This basic income is to be instated by steps, taking care first of the most in need.” This law is still unregulated but the government, immediately after, created the successful Bolsa Familia (BF) program. Law 10,835 is unique in the world and needs to be regulated as to the steps to be taken to gradually universalize the benefit." OPINION: A Three-Step Proposal to Get to a Basic Income For All Brazilians | Basic Income News (2013, binews.org)

"No progress has been made toward implementing a basic income since then." (Citizens for Public Justice, 2009)

"The poor were in fact supported by the Bolsa Familia program but the universal and unconditional part was left to anyone’s suggestion. We are supporting the idea to start the universal and unconditional basic income with all newborns in Brazil, starting in the near future." (by Francisco G. Nobrega, from  Basicincome.be, 2013)

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.

Dreaming of a world free of hunger and want

Dreaming of a world free of hunger and want Rema Nagarajan 06 September 2012.

This article is from The Times of India.

"A basic minimum income for every human being is precisely what 71-year-old Leftist politician, economist and professor Senator Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy, believes is possible given the economic prosperity the world is seeing. And he intends to start with making this a reality in Brazil."

It's great news. Basic income is taking roots in Brazil.

Basic Income proposers should consider fighting for a citizen-ownership democracy. The Basic Income is bigger with a citizen-ownership democracy, and the foundation based on ownership rights is strong.

The most common question people ask about Basic Income is where the money is coming from. If it is about taxing the rich and middle class to redistribute to the poor, the idea becomes less acceptable. Citizen-ownership provides a strong alternative viewpoint. Citizens are getting what is rightfully theirs, and current democracies have been wrongfully practicing an extreme taxation on their income.

Actually, Senator Eduardo Matarazzo Suplicy is proposing a citizen-ownership democracy:  "All the natural wealth and public assets of a country belongs to its people." But he is only asking for 10% of the common wealth to be distributed to citizens: "the people ought to have a share of the money earned from exploiting these resources. If we set aside 10% from such earnings to create a citizens fund, soon it will be possible to give a basic income to the citizens."