Citizen's dividend is a proposed policy based upon the Georgist principle that the natural world is the

common property Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every econo ...

of all people. It is proposed that all citizens receive regular payments (

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-i ...

s) from revenue raised by leasing or taxing the monopoly of valuable

land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...

and other

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

History

A concept akin to a citizen's dividend was known in Classical Athens. In 483 BC, a massive new seam of silver was found in the Athenian silver mines at

Laurium Laurium or Lavrio ( ell, Λαύριο; grc, Λαύρειον (later ); before early 11th century BC: Θορικός '' Thorikos''; from Middle Ages until 1908: Εργαστήρια ''Ergastiria'') is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Gree ...

.Plutarch
Themistocles 4
/ref> The dispersal of this provoked great debate. The statesman

Aristides Aristides ( ; grc-gre, Ἀριστείδης, Aristeídēs, ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''dikaios''), he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remembe ...

proposed the profit from this should be distributed among the Athenian citizens.Holland, pp. 219–222 However he was opposed by

Themistocles Themistocles (; grc-gre, Θεμιστοκλῆς; c. 524–459 BC) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As ...

, who proposed the money be spent building warships for the Athenian navy. In the end, Themistocles' policy was the one adopted. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the idea can be traced back to

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

's essay, '' Agrarian Justice'', which is also considered one of the earliest proposals for a

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

system. Thomas Paine summarized his view by stating that "Men did not make the earth. It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds." Paine saw inheritance as being partly a common fund and wanted to supplement the citizen's dividend in a tax on inheritance transfers, but Georgist supporters now focus on natural resources.

Implementations and proposals

This concept is a form of

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

(UBI), where the citizen's dividend depends upon the value of natural resources or what could be titled as common goods like location values, seignorage, the

electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies. The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging fro ...

, the industrial use of air (CO₂ production), etc.

Permanent Fund Dividend implementation in Alaska

The U.S. state of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

dispenses a form of citizen's dividend in its Permanent Fund dividend, which holds investments initially seeded by the state's revenue from mineral resources, particularly

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

. In 2005, every eligible Alaskan resident (including children) received a check for $845.76. Over the 24-year history of the fund, it has paid out a total of $24,775.45 to every resident. Some believe this dividend as the reason why Alaska has one of the lowest rates of inequality and relatively low levels of poverty compared to other US states. A 2018 paper found that the Alaska Permanent Fund "dividend had no effect on employment, and increased part-time work by 1.8 percentage points (17 percent)... our results suggest that a universal and permanent cash transfer does not significantly decrease aggregate employment."

Carbon emissions reduction proposal

The concept is also promoted as a tool to reduce carbon emissions. Peter Barnes created the concept of "Sky Trust" as an example of how this could be implemented. Barnes proposes setting up a public trust to manage the funds, separate from the private sector being taxed. A calculation based on specific assets by Barnes estimates that American citizens could each get $5,000 per year by this model.

Swiss experiment proposal

A Swiss campaign in 2013 advocated for a citizen's income which could net each citizen an amount equivalent to $34,000 dollars. A citizens dividend based on resources according to

Thomas Pogge Thomas Winfried Menko Pogge (; born 13 August 1953) is a German philosopher and is the Director of the Global Justice Program and Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. In addition to his Yale appointment, h ...

is due to every citizen because everyone owns an inalienable stake in all limited natural resources. His theory goes along with Barnes with the exception of ownership, Pogge contends that the people own the resources. ''The Progress Report'' says that the dividend should be valued by the free market.

Maryland proposal

John Moser, a congressional candidate in Maryland, ran chiefly on the proposal that a citizen's dividend based around a portion of all income would eliminate homelessness and hunger, and would act as a collective risk share as used in Nordic model nations.

New Physiocratic League

The New Physiocratic League, a project advocating for an economic reform revolving around shifting taxation towards land, advocates for a form of citizen's dividend as part of its Three Pillars program of income support.

Citizen's dividend proposal in India

Rahul Chimanbhai Mehta, an Indian politician, has proposed a form of citizen's dividend. In his system, two-thirds of the

royalty payments A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from mining and wireless spectrum, as well as the rent collected from some

public land In all modern states, a portion of land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land, state land, or Crown land (Australia, and Canada). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countrie ...

would be dispensed as monthly payments to all Indians above the age of seven. The remaining third would be allocated for the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

. His proposal allocates less funds for parents who have more than four children and for legal minors but more funds for

senior citizens Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

. According to his estimate, this can result in a monthly income of approximately Rs. 1000 for every Indian.

Other proposals

Several philosophers and economists connect left-libertarian ideas with support for UBI. Of these, the most closely related theory to

Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—includi ...

calls for a citizen's dividend—that is, a UBI equal to the monetary rental value of natural resources and socially created wealth. Writers advocating citizen's dividends include Peter Barnes (author of ''With Liberty and Dividends for All''), economist Nic Tideman and activist Jeff Smith. Barnes proposes setting up a public "Sky Trust" to manage the funds creating from taxing pollution, greenhouse gases and other actions that deplete the value of shared natural resources. Other theorists use left-libertarian insights without strictly connecting the monetary value of resource value with the level of UBI.

Philippe Van Parijs Philippe Van Parijs (; born 1951) is a Belgian political philosopher and political economist, best known as a proponent and main defender of the concept of an unconditional basic income and for the first systematic treatment of linguistic jus ...

makes a freedom-based argument for the highest sustainable UBI regardless of the value of natural resources, justified partly on the basis that the labor market is imperfectly competitive and produces a significant amount of "job rents." Guy Standing uses many left-libertarian or "

homas In the Vedic Hinduism, a homa (Sanskrit: होम) also known as havan, is a fire ritual performed on special occasions by a Hindu priest usually for a homeowner (" grihastha": one possessing a home). The grihasth keeps different kinds of fire ...

Painist" arguments for UBI, along with progressive and social-democratic arguments for UBI without committing to resource- or rent-based financing of UBI. To reduce economic inequality to levels he considers more advantageous,

Steven Pearlstein Steven Pearlstein is an American columnist who wrote on business and the economy in a column published twice weekly in ''The Washington Post''. His tenure at the WaPo ended on March 3, 2021. Pearlstein received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Commentar ...

proposes a $3000 per year dividend for Americans completing

K-12 education K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

, with a requirement to at some point perform three years of

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

(or, alternatively, profit sharing).

Notes

References

* *

Clive Lord Clive Richard Lord (born 1935) is a British political activist and long serving member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He was one of the first members of the PEOPLE Party, which later became the Green Party, and split to make three sepa ...

. ''A Citizens’ Income''. John Carpenter, 2003. .
The Permanent Fund Dividend

External links

Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend

Progress.org: Citizen's Dividend

Citizen-ownership Democracy

The New Physiocratic League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Citizen's Dividend Dividends Employment compensation Universal basic income Georgism Citizenship fr:Revenu citoyen