The Pope supports unconditional basic income, living wage, and more

From Msnbc. Pope Francis

Pope Francis has issued his new Apostolic Exhortation. Here is the complete version direct from the Vatican.

189. Solidarity is a spontaneous reaction by those who recognize that the social function of property and the universal destination of goods are realities which come before private property. The private ownership of goods is justified by the need to protect and increase them, so that they can better serve the common good; for this reason, solidarity must be lived as the decision to restore to the poor what belongs to them. These convictions and habits of solidarity, when they are put into practice, open the way to other structural transformations and make them possible. Changing structures without generating new convictions and attitudes will only ensure that those same structures will become, sooner or later, corrupt, oppressive and ineffectual.

The Pope supports a citizen dividend. The Pope says we should restore to the poor what belongs to them. Return the citizen dividend that has been 100% confiscated from the poor. 

Should Scotland be an independent country?

From BBC. Scotland going independent?

BBC News - Scottish referendum: SNP to launch independence blueprint:

Who? What? When?

• Voters in Scotland - including for the first time 16 and 17-year-olds - will have their say in a referendum on Scottish independence.

• They will be asked the "yes/no" question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

• The referendum takes place on Thursday 18 September, 2014.

What is missing from the above?

How much?

Scottish voters should ask how much. How much is the citizen dividend?

If you are going to start a new country, you should ask about citizen dividend. 

That is the only direct tangible benefit to voters. 

Einstein: You see only what you expect to see.

Whether you can observe a thing or not
depends on the theory which you use.
It is the theory which decides what can be observed.
From Wiki

"Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed."

In simple terms, we see only what we expect to see.

For people who have never thought about citizen ownership and citizen dividends, they don't miss citizen dividends.

But once people know about citizen dividends, they realize their huge loss.

You mean the state has been confiscating $10,000 each from me and my babies every year??? Oh my god!

The Road Less Traveled: Slate Understands: Basic income / Citizen dividend

The Road Less Traveled: Slate Understands::

"Anyone who doesn't support the citizen's dividend is evil and a worthless human being."

"If the [basic income] policy is just passed once, anywhere, and shown to work, people from all around the world, the citizens in every country, will rise up in indignation that their governments aren't offering the same benefits to them. They'll ask their representative democracies why Switzerland has a basic income while they are still left to starve homeless on the streets.

And they will flood into the voting booths and elect the first party that changes its platform to "FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE, WE JUST WANT A BASIC INCOME." The entire first world will become paradise on Earth overnight. And we're only one Swiss referendum away. If only. If only."

Yes, the world is waiting for the spark for revolution. Will the spark happen in Switzerland?

When the poor realize that they are taxed at 100%, there has to be a revolution.

Unlike the communist revolution, this will be peaceful.
Unlike the communist revolution, this will be effective.

Poor people really don't know that they are taxed so extremely

From Wiki.US Income Tax Rates

This is what we are told, and what we believe. The richer pays a higher rate of tax.

So we thought the poor has a good time, as far as tax is concerned.

The truth is exactly the reverse.

The truth is this. The poor pays close to 100% tax. Here is a Singapore example.

All his citizen dividend (easily estimated at $10,000 for USA) is 100% taxed away.  For a poor family of 4, that means their $40,000 citizen dividend is 100% confiscated.

As far as tax rate is concerned, the rich is having a good time. The poor faces total 100% confiscation.

(This post is a response to the article by the London mayor hailing the wealthy as tax heroes.
We should be humbly thanking the super-rich, not bashing them - Telegraph:  BORIS JOHNSON
The poor should get Victoria Cross medals for their tax sacrifices.)

It's official. Singapore has the most "welfarist" government.

"Minister K.Shanmugam yesterday issued a challenge for anyone to find a government that is more "welfarist" than Singapore's." (Straits Times, Nov 12, 2013)

I don't know what to say

Who owns sovereign wealth funds? You or the government?

Guest Blog: Who owns SWFs? by Angela Cummine
This blog post is an interesting analysis of who really owns the sovereign wealth funds. If we expand that bigger, it is an analysis of who really owns the common wealth of a country.

"Despite the apparent ‘public ownership’ consensus, it is often not clear in what way the public of a given host country ‘owns’ its SWF."

"Academia, industry analysts and policy commentators echo this definition ad nauseam but with a little variety, referring to SWFs as ‘state-owned’, ‘government-owned’ or owned by ‘the nation’ in which they reside. To a political scientist, the terms ‘state’, ‘government’ and ‘nation’ are all distinct concepts, referring to unique entities. In the SWF debate, there is a sense that all these terms are used synonymously, as proxies for a more abstract idea of public ownership. Case closed.

But things are not so simple."

What it says about government and people is particularly educational:

"Government as an institution regularly conducts affairs that could be more easily understood as representing its own interests as a principal. It has overheads and responsibilities that attach to it which may require consideration of its institutional interest distinct from the public interest. It has concerns as an employer, contractor and financial entity that may be formed with little regard to the people it represents. We can therefore consider government as a unique, stand alone entity separate from its core identity as the representative of the people."

In short, the government and the people are not one.

Without good regulation, the government will eat up the people. The government will eat up the SWFs. This happened to Alberta's Heritage Fund.

There is a Confucius saying: a rogue government is worse than a fierce tiger.

Answering the most serious question about unconditional basic income

The most serious question about the unconditional basic income is this: Where is the money coming from?

There are many different answers. Each has its merits, depending on the individual country's context.

The answers include:

1. The money will come from savings when many current welfare expenses become redundant. The savings include the current administrative expenses on filtering out the "undeserving" from the "deserving".

2. A tax on land values.

3. A new tax that will be hardly noticeable, e.g., a minuscule tax on financial tradings.

My favorite answer:

1. The money will come from revenues generated from a country's common wealth, e.g., from oil, minerals, land sales or lease, sovereign wealth funds, and various licenses.

There are many reasons.

1. This is justice. The confiscated citizen dividend is returned to citizens. This is recognizing the citizen right to ownership of the country and consequently a right to dividend from this ownership.

2. The amount is not insignificant. In fact, the amount can be "huge", depending on the country. In the USA, the amount could exceed the minimum wage on a yearly basis for each citizen. See more estimates here.

3. No one can claim to be subsidizing the poor. The money doesn't come from him. Everyone gets his or her own citizen dividend back as an owner of the country. There is no loss of dignity in getting your very own citizen dividend. Ask the Alaskans, who have been getting their citizen dividends for three decades.

Financial literacy lesson no. 2: Our vote is our financial wealth.

Remember lesson no. 1. We are owners of our country. Ownership should come with a huge citizen dividend which is confiscated by "our" government, the agent in charge of our common wealth. Over a lifetime, the citizen dividend can be close to a million dollars per person.

Lesson no. 2. Our vote is our way to get our citizen dividend. Our vote is our financial wealth.

Tell every politician that we are voting him out. Nobody gets a second term without giving us back our citizen dividend.

In US, UK and other countries, the parties supporting a citizen dividend or an unconditional basic income are usually small parties. The big dominating parties prefer to continue confiscating our citizen dividend. They know their strong competitors share the same ideal of confiscation.

They think they are safe. They think our votes cannot go elsewhere.

No longer. This is our response.

To all politicians: No Second Term. Until we get our citizen dividends.

Unconditional basic income gets people excited. Here's the proof.

When people hear about unconditional basic income, they get excited. Here's the proof from a Facebook campaign for an unconditional basic income in the European Union. When they tell people through a Facebook campaign, thousands and thousands of people support by signing on the proposal.

Croatia. From Help us bring basic income closer to reality in Europe !

Sweden. From Help us bring basic income closer to reality in Europe !

Portugal. From Help us bring basic income closer to reality in Europe !

Germany. From Help us bring basic income closer to reality in Europe !

Facebook. The way to spread unconditional basic income across Europe.

Help us bring basic income closer to reality in Europe !

Help fund the UBI campaign in EU

luckyisgood

I contributed because I believe #basicincome to be the next and the most significant step we need to make to improve society. I contributed because I believe that with basic income, the world unleashes the creative and innovative potential each and every one of us has, once we get mere existence off our minds

This will be a giant step for a new civilization.

Where men, women and children are free.

Really free, not the virtual slavery of today.

A John Lennon song to go with citizen dividend and unconditional basic income

Imagine all the people sharing all the world.

The least is to share the common wealth.

Financial literacy lesson No. 1

Financial literacy lesson number 1.

You own your country. The common wealth belongs to you, with an equal share with all other citizens / residents. This is a lot of money. See this post for an estimate of this amount, for various countries.

If you get this money back, you will have some money to use your other financial literacy lessons.