Citizen dividend: Everything is ready, except for the East wind.

Red Cliffs Battle. Waiting for the East Wind (From Wiki)

In the famous Battle of Red Cliffs during the time of the three kingdoms in China 2000 years ago, the defender had all the battle materials and soldiers prepared and waited for the East wind to blow, to bring the fire across the river to the attacker.

In Alaska, the Alaska Permanent Fund was set up 3 decades ago. Within a few years, the wind of citizen dividend started, and the investment money from the fund has been flowing in to Alaskans' pockets for 3 decades. This year, every Alaskan will get US$1884.

In Singapore, the permanent Singapore reserve was set up a few decades ago. Money has been pouring in to the permanent reserve with nothing coming out. It is big enough to easily distribute a citizen dividend of $10,000. When will the wind of citizen dividend blow?

In many countries, e.g., UK and Switzerland, that are looking at a citizen dividend or a universal basic income, their biggest problem is looking for the money. In quite a few countries, e.g., Singapore, Kuwait and Norway, the money is already there. Waiting. Waiting for citizens to really believe that they are owners of their country's sovereign wealth funds and other public properties.

Everything is ready, except for the East wind.

Return our Citizen Dividend. "People need to quit demanding jobs and start demanding justice."

Why you have the right to a $5K dividend from Uncle Sam | Making Sen$e | PBS NewsHour: (Aug 27, 2014)

This post on citizen dividend has quite a few gems.

"Dividends from common wealth, by contrast, unite society by putting all its members in the same boat. The income everyone receives is a right, not a handout. This changes the story, the psychology and the politics."

"A national dividend system would be simple, fair and immensely popular. It would rest on the principle of shared ownership, not redistribution. Once set up, it would be market-based rather than tax-funded. And it could gain support across the political spectrum: conservatives from Sarah Palin to Bill O’Reilly have lauded Alaska’s dividends."

"Our times demand a reliable flow of supplementary income as well. The best way to provide that is to pay dividends to everyone from wealth that’s logically ours."

From progress.org (Aug 28, 2014), on the above post about citizen dividend:

"What’s needed is for regular people to feel enough self-esteem to demand a fair share of what’s already ours just like the rich feel when winning an enormous share of what’s not theirs. We’re not broke. There is a surplus. It just needs to be shared. People need to quit demanding jobs and start demanding justice."

When will more people around the world be more like Alaskans, demanding their share of their own state's resources?

When will the Alaskans be more Alaskan, demanding a better share of their own state's resources? They only get a quarter of what the state gets from the oil companies, which is a small fraction of the oil wealth. I think Alaskans get less than 10% of their oil wealth in citizen dividends.

Kuwait - how much can a citizen get?

If Kuwait becomes a citizen-ownership democracy, how much can its citizens get?

Kuwait has 3 to 3.5 million citizens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kuwait

It's sovereign wealth fund is estimated to be in excess of $300 billion of assets. The fund is growing as oil revenues are channeled into it.
"The Kuwait Future Generations Fund has 10% of annual oil revenues added to it. As of fiscal year 2004/2005, the annual contribution to the Kuwait Future Generations Fund was valued at 896.24 million Kuwaiti dinars (USD $3.07 billion)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait_Investment_Authority

A quick estimate:

 $300 billion divided by 3 million citizens = $100,000 per citizen in the current fund.

 Assuming a small return of 3%, each citizen should get $3000 per year.

 Over an 80-year lifespan, a citizen stands to get $240,000, IF Kuwait becomes a citizen-ownership democracy.

The above estimate does not include increases in the fund from annual oil revenues. 

Assuming 10% of annual oil revenue is $3 billion, if 100% of oil revenue is put into the fund, as in a true citizen-ownership democracy, the fund will increase by $30 billion a year. At these rates, a citizen stands to receive $1,200,000 over the next 80 years.