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Alaska's Example

The citizens fighting for fair compensation of the use of their commons should look at Alaska. The Alaskans consider their dividends from their commons their rightful share of the state’s natural wealth. They do not see it as a redistribution of wealth or as welfare. There is no stigma attached to the payments of $1,000 to more than $3,000 to all Alaskan residents including children. Why is this not done in the rest of the U.S.? This type of money is what is needed to continually pump up consumer demand for the middle out, which can be spent immediately. Dividends gained from common wealth bypasses the tug of war between advocates of smaller and larger government. They require no new taxes or government programs. Once set up they are purely market based and because they send legitimate property income to everyone they can’t be derided as welfare. The payments could be set up by the Social Security Administration. There are many ways and things that must happen to save the world and our workers and their families. We must relook at our unions to bring them back to full force. We must bring up wages for all low wage workers to at least $15 to $18 an hour. We also need free education or at least the money to pay for it without going into debt. There are ways; we just need people who think freely and honest leaders. The money is there and the means are there. Also, remember a country, a community or a union is just as good as the people living or working there want it to be. It can be the best or the worse. It is all up to the people. Remember we all are very rich for we own the earth’s commons and self-organized commons are undergoing a renaissance today as one of the most robust alternative to contemporary capitalism. We the people just have to start claiming and collecting and then use the commons for the good of all. Some of your commons are clean air, clean water, forests, fisheries, and even farmlands. These are some of our natural resources, but we also own man made commons, such as roads, airways, the skies used for travel, parks and many more. They ours and we should be paid for the use of them.
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