Citizen's dividend is a proposed policy based upon the

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

principle that the natural world is the common property 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, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...

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 Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

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 The city of Athens (, ''Athênai'' ; Modern Greek: Αθήναι, ''Athine'' ) during the classical period of ancient Greece (480–323 BC) was the major urban centre of the notable '' polis'' ( city-state) of the same name, located in Attica, ...

. In 483 BC, a massive new seam of silver was found in the Athenian silver mines at Laurium.Plutarch
Themistocles 4
/ref> The dispersal of this provoked great debate. The statesman

Aristides Aristides ( ; , ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''díkaios''), he flourished at the beginning of Athens' Classical period and is remembered for his generalship in the Persian War. ...

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

Themistocles Themistocles (; ; ) 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 a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having th ...

, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

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 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 ...

's essay, ''

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 ...

'', which is also considered one of the earliest proposals for a

social security Welfare spending 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 specifically to social insurance ...

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

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 a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

(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 Seigniorage , also spelled seignorage or seigneurage (), is the increase in the value of money due to money creation minus the cost of producing the additional money. Monetary seigniorage is where government bonds are exchanged for newly create ...

, the

electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band. From low to high ...

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

Permanent Fund Dividend implementation in Alaska

The U.S. state of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

dispenses a form of citizen's dividend in its

Permanent Fund dividend The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) is a constitutionally established permanent fund managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). It was established in Alaska in 1976 by Article 9, Section 15 of the Alaska Stat ...

, 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 chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

. 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. 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, United States. In addition to his Yale ...

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 2018 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 The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level colle ...

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 Rahul is a popular male name in India and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the Upanishads is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the Buddha, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that f ...

, 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 or ...

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 (Commonwealth realms). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countries. ...

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. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. 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 is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

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

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 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 " homasPainist" arguments for UBI, along with progressive and

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

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 Comme ...

proposes a $3000 per year dividend for Americans completing

K-12 education K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

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

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

(or, alternatively,

profit sharing Profit sharing refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses which provide direct or indirect payments to employees, often depending on the company's profitability, employees' regular salaries, and bonuses. In publicly traded compa ...

Notes

References

* *

Clive Lord Clive Richard Lord 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 separate Green ...

. ''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