Entrepreneurs John Bird and Gordon Roddick once gave homeless people the opportunity to sell magazines and make money. These homeless people very quickly realized that locations made far more of a difference than hard work in how many copies they can sell. Eventually, fights broke out for control over the best locations. This example is […]
Taxes are typically thought of as the traditional source of money needed for a universal basic income (UBI). The problem is that a UBI means you’re taxed more than you normally are taxed. A Citizen’s Dividend is a UBI but without the usual taxation. Instead, it uses economic rent from land and other forms of […]
A Citizen’s Dividend aims to give everyone an annual stipend that is enough to guarantee a humane and decent existence. This stipend is generated from the collection and redistribution of economic rent taken from land value, as well as rents from oil, minerals, license fees and other forms of the commons. Such a system of […]
A Citizen’s Dividend has the potential of having bipartisan support. Regardless of whether you’re left or right, chances are there’s nothing in a Citizen’s Dividend that conflicts with your beliefs. The left will appreciate its way of providing a social safety net for everyone, while the right will be happy that it doesn’t support the […]
What is simultaneously favourable for business, good for security, fit for mental health, and beneficial for social welfare? An economic policy that collects a country’s untapped wealth of economic rent, from land and other sources of the commons. The rent is then redistributed to every citizen — yes, every citizen — of that country. Properly […]
Economic rent, put simply, is a sort of unearned income. The benefits a farmer gets from having land that just so happens to be more fertile. The farmer can produce more fruits and vegetables. It is an unearned form of income. A Citizen’s Dividend aims to give everyone a form of universal income. It is […]
One of the things that makes a Citizen’s Dividend different from welfare or a traditional universal basic income is that it doesn’t involve increasing the size or role of government. Everyone gets a regular stipend generated from the collection of economic rent from things like land and natural resources. But the government isn’t in charge […]
Throughout history, land has always been underutilized due to the way in which its boundless economic surplus is rarely ever used (or even recognised) for its full potential to uplift society. The same applies to other forms of the commons, like natural resources or even the airwaves. These commons can generate enough surplus to give […]
The nature of government welfare means that a person reliant on welfare barely scrapes by while on it. There may be individual cases of people abusing welfare to enrich themselves. But, on a system-wide basis, large chunks of people on welfare can’t become wealthy. On the other hand, the potential wealth generated by a Citizen’s […]
The pandemic has disrupted the global economy. That cannot be understated. According to a World Economic Forum report from 15 July 2021, youth employment throughout 2020 increased to 8.7% and a total of 255 million full-time jobs were lost worldwide due to the pandemic. A guaranteed annual stipend generated by the collection and redistribution of […]