Asset-based egalitarianism is a form of

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...

which theorizes that

equality Equality generally refers to the fact of being equal, of having the same value. In specific contexts, equality may refer to: Society * Egalitarianism, a trend of thought that favors equality for all people ** Political egalitarianism, in which ...

is possible by a redistribution of resources, usually in the form of a

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

grant provided at the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor (law), minor, and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus te ...

. Names for the implementation of this theory in

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

include universal basic capital, stakeholding and ownerism, and are generally synonymous within the equal opportunity egalitarian framework.Cunliffe, J & Erreygers, G (2004) The Origins of Universal Grants: An Anthology of Historical Writings on Basic Capital and Basic Income

Historical development

The idea of granting every citizen some capital has its roots in ancient Israel and the biblical institution of

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

. According to regulations found in the

Book of Leviticus The Book of Leviticus (, from , ; , , 'And He called'; ) is the third book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. Many hypotheses presented by scholars as to its origins agree that it de ...

, every fifty years everyone was supposed to return to their own property. Given that property was initially allocated to households in an egalitarian manner, this system implied that every person had the right to a certain plot of land. In more modern times, the idea has been around since

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 ...

(January 29, 1737 – June 8, 1809) in his work ''

Agrarian Justice ''Agrarian Justice'' is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and published in 1797, which proposed that those who possess cultivated land owe the community a ground rent, which justifies an estate tax to fund universal old-age and di ...

'' from 1795, and complemented his other thesis of

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

. Two independent schools of thought were developed on the subject, involving individuals from the American labor movement and scholars of the Belgian School. However, the same reasoning (given by both schools) behind the basic capital proposal is the

redistribution of wealth Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, con ...

usually funded by an

inheritance tax International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and pro ...

in order to provide a universal and unconditional sum of money (or capital assets) at the age of majority. From most authors, the intention was to create a nominal grant for everyone based on a deserved natural inheritance of the earth.

Relationship with policy

In the policy format, asset-based egalitarianism is usually seen as the opposite policy proposal of Philippe Van Parijs and his thesis of

, but asset-based egalitarian proposals have received less academic attention. However, more recently the wave of

third way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

politics has seen much more emphasis placed on responsibility and

equality of opportunity Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. For example, the intent of equa ...

and has reopened an old debate. Some famous recent work on the policy efficaciousness of universal basic capital or asset-based egalitarianism has been conducted by

Bruce Ackerman Bruce Arnold Ackerman (born August 19, 1943) is an American legal scholar who serves as a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School. In 2010, he was named by ''Foreign Policy'' magazine to its list of top global thinkers. Ackerman was also identified ...

and Anne Alstott in ''The Stakeholder Society''. In this policy proposal, the method of funding the 'stake' was by means of a

wealth tax A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets or an entity's net worth. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and ...

and provides a sum of $80,000 for those reaching the age of majority. In actual policy,

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

and the British Labour Party initiated the United Kingdom Child Trust Fund, while in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

the idea has been implemented in the form of

individual development account An individual development account (IDA) is an asset building tool designed to enable low-income families to save towards a targeted amount usually used for building assets in the form of home ownership, post-secondary education and small busines ...

and argued for by Michael Sherraden. These remain the nearest practical examples. One of the motivations of the related policy such as the Child Trust Fund is clear from this excerpt:

Criticism

Asset-based egalitarian policies, such as the Ackerman and Alstott proposals, are often criticised as not being egalitarian. Due to different people having different abilities and talents to utilise financial wealth, there is always a risk that those without formal financial education would alienate their own freedom by dissipating their capital or "stakeblowing". Stuart White argued that unless education corrected for this, there would be an inegalitarian outcome, as people fundamentally have different asset-management capacities.White, S (2006) “The Citizen’s Stake and Paternalism” in Ackerman, B et al. (eds) Redesigning Distribution See

Time preference In behavioral economics, time preference (or time discounting,. delay discounting, temporal discounting, long-term orientation) is the current relative valuation placed on receiving a good at an earlier date compared with receiving it at a late ...

and

Deferred gratification Delayed gratification, or deferred gratification, is the ability to resist the temptation of an immediate reward in favor of a more valuable and long-lasting reward later. It involves forgoing a smaller, immediate pleasure to achieve a larger o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asset-Based Egalitarianism Egalitarianism Capital (economics)

Historical development

Relationship with policy

Criticism

See also

References