Re: OWNERSHIP: Alaska dividend model for Iraq

["Norman G. Kurland" <thirdway@cesj.org>]

The confusion stems from the original plan advanced by former Senator Mike
Gravel to establish a General Stock Ownership Plan that was designed to
establish share accounts for every citizen to become an owner of the Alaskan
pipeline.  In that case, the dividends would have flowed to each citizen based
on their participation in ownership.  And it would then be example of binary
economics and be consistent with the Kelso-Adler principles of economic
justice.  Unfortunately, Senator Gravel's political enemies strongly opposed
this ownership proposal and convinced the Alaskan voters to support the current
dividend plan, which is a traditional trickle-down welfare state proposal to
keep the Alaskan voters economically powerless and dependent on the ownership
elite and their political cronies who control the Alaskan economy.  Today
Alaskan dividends are disconnected from direct personal ownership and are
therefore an example of socialism, not the just third way advanced by Kelso.  I
think Rodney understands this distinction.

Keith Wilde wrote:

> Norm, you are confusing me here.  I distinctly remember Rodny Shakespeare
> posting a message in one of these COG discussion groups which identified the
> Alaska dividend model as "binary economics", and I am pretty sure  you are
> an advocat of that system.  Can you sort out this apparent inconsistency for
> us, please.
>
> Keith Wilde
> Ottawa, Canada
> keithwilde@sympatico.ca
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Norman G. Kurland" <thirdway@cesj.org>
> To: <ownership@cog.kent.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 10:49 PM
> Subject: Re: OWNERSHIP: Alaska dividend model for Iraq
>
> I thought this is a discussion group on ownership, not trickle-down profit
> sharing, as in the politically corrupt Alaskan model.  The issue of how to
> achieve widespread citizen participation in Iraqi oil profits is ultimately
> a moral issue and an issue or whether economic power should be in the hands
> of the mullahs, foreign owners, the state and its bureaucrats, or
> democratically spread out as a right of private property in the hands
> individually of every citizen.  Profit sharing that does not flow from the
> ownership of capital leaves the recipients in a permanent state of economic
> dependency on the whim of those in power.  That is the approach of Karl
> Marx.  That's not democracy.  Here is a proposal that is based on
> widespread ownership sharing that I thought everyone in this group is
> implicitly in favor of.
>
> Norm Kurland
> Center for Economic and Social Justice
> CESJ web site: http://www.cesj.org
> Global Justice Movement web site: http://www.globaljusticemovement.org
>
> A NEW MODEL OF NATION-BUILDING
> FOR CITIZENS OF IRAQ
>
> Executive Summary
>
> (Center for Economic and Social Justice, updated April 11, 2003)
>
> · The Abraham Federation is a major innovation in democratic
> nation-building, offering an inclusive, comprehensive plan of economic
> development called "Capital Homesteading."  In contrast with capitalist and
> socialist models of development being rejected by Third World countries, it
> starts from a radically new perspective based on universalized citizen
> access to viable capital ownership and structured democratization of
> economic power as the basis for political democracy.
>
> · The Abraham Federation strategy was first developed in 1978 to create a
> new democratic nation state for the Holy Land.  Freedom of religion and
> conscience would be secured by a government that systematically diffuses
> economic power into the hands of every citizen.  This strategy proposed
> starting with lands now controlled by the Israeli military on the West Bank
> and Gaza Strip, and offering citizenship to Palestinians and to all
> Muslims, Jews, Christians and others wishing to settle on this land. Today
> it also offers a viable and politically unifying framework for rebuilding
> post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
>
> · The new model addresses a "fatal omission" in conventional approaches to
> nation-building that result in a growing exclusionary gap between the rich
> and poor, concentration of power and ownership within a small elite,
> corruption and abuses of power at all levels, and instability within
> society.
>
> · The leading edge of this strategic framework is an economic component
> that attacks directly the root causes of terrorism and the basis of its
> support among the populace.  It will answer the demands for justice and an
> end to poverty and oppression of all Iraqi citizens.  It will create a
> unique nation of owners.
>
> · It systematically promotes the growing economic sovereignty (i.e.,
> empowerment) of each citizen - as a worker, as a consumer and as a capital
> owner.  Economic governance and accountability would be diffused through
> the structured spreading of productive capital assets throughout society.
> This would enhance the economic well-being and self-determination of the
> people, and reduce the likelihood of corruption and abuses of power
> associated with any form of monopoly power.
>
> · It sets up the legal and constitutional framework for moving quickly to a
> high-growth, free market system.  It is based on the 4 pillars of a just
> market economy: (1) expanded capital ownership, (2) limited economic power
> of the state, (3) restoration of free trade and open markets for
> determining just prices, just wages and just profits, and (4) restoration
> of private property in all means of production.
>
> · Because of its emphasis on infrastructural re-engineering, particularly
> with respect to central banking and capital credit, this framework would
> radically reduce the cost of reconstruction of Iraq, allowing for low-cost
> internal means of financing the reconstruction.  This would reduce the cost
> to the U.S. taxpayer, the UN and those countries supporting the effort in
> Iraq.
>
> · It would help Iraq become economically self-sufficient as soon as
> possible, providing the basis for a stable, independent, and democratic
> government that would serve as a model for other nations in the Middle East
> and around the world.
>
> Phases for Applying the Abraham Federation Model in Iraq
>
> PHASE I: Denationalize the oil fields of Iraq, as a catalyst for building a
> new "Just Third Way" economy. Convert the Iraqi National Oil Company into a
> professionally managed limited liability corporation. Issue initial shares
> at no cost to every oil worker and Iraqi citizen and guarantee them
> first-class shareholder rights to the profits and voting control of the
> company.  Encourage preferential oil production leases to competitive
> operating companies that are broadly owned.  To lay the foundations for
> Iraq's future economy, launch projects to be owned by Iraqi citizens, using
> advanced U.S. technologies that produce power and water from sea water and
> waste. Future government revenues would then come from increased citizen
> incomes, reducing non-accountable political control by a military or
> political elite, or by foreign oil interests.
>
> Set up individual share accounts (like IRAs) within local banks for each
> worker and every citizen of Iraq, including those now in exile who return
> to Iraq.  Free, full-dividend payout shares would be distributed equally to
> these individual accounts, representing the current assets of the
> denationalized Iraq National Oil Company.  These tax-sheltered accounts
> would be given the power to borrow interest-free, non-recourse productive
> credit on behalf of the shareholders for future share issuances to meet the
> expansion and modernization needs of the former state-owned oil company, as
> well as new enterprises, with the debt secured and repaid by the projected
> dividends on the newly issued shares.
>
> One cautionary note: Experience with employee stock ownership plans has
> shown that it is not sufficient merely to give people ownership and expect
> any significant change in their behavior and value systems.  It is
> essential that management systems be introduced during the planning and
> implementation phases of Capital Homesteading to offer a new servant
> leadership philosophy and structures and processes for diffusing economic
> power and ownership. One such system called "Justice-Based Management"
> systematically builds internal ownership cultures necessary to educate all
> members and maintain the continued deconcentration of power and
> accountability of managers to the worker- and citizen-shareholders.
>
> PHASE 2:  Help the Iraqis to establish a written constitution that reflects
> all the rights contained in the UN Declaration of Human Rights,
> strengthening Article 17 (acknowledging every person's right to own
> property individually or in association with others). The new Iraqi
> constitution would include the provision that as a fundamental right of
> citizenship every citizen is guaranteed access to the social means (i.e.,
> money and interest-free productive credit) of access for acquiring and
> possessing income-producing property.  All tax, credit, property,
> corporation, insurance, inheritance and related laws should, if necessary,
> be reconstituted to conform to the constitution and to establish
> institutions supporting economic democracy and universalization of the
> right to private property and protection of the rights of property.
>
> PHASE 3:  Restructure the discount power of the central bank in Iraq to
> create interest-free money for facilitating private-sector growth without
> inflation, linked to providing more widespread access to capital credit and
> allocated through local banks and institutions.
>
> PHASE 4:  Have the U.S. introduce a resolution into the UN General Assembly
> to treat Iraq as a "global free trade zone" whose imports and exports would
> be exempt from all trade barriers and tariffs of other countries.  In this
> way the international community could provide a major catalyst for "Peace
> Through Justice" in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.
> ______________________________
> For more information, visit www.cesj.org or www.globaljusticemovement.org,
> or e-mail thirdway@cesj.org. "Extending the Abraham Federation Model: A
> Just Third Way for Bringing Democracy to the Iraqi People" is available at
> http://www.cesj.org/homestead/strategies/regional-global/abrahamfederation-n
> k.html.
> A detailed report on Capital Homesteading, entitled "Capital Homesteading
> for Every Citizen," is available at
> http://www.cesj.org/homestead/donnersocialsecurity.pdf.
>
> EJDodson wrote:
>
> > Ed Dodson responding...
> > William Ryan wrote:
> >
> > > Secretary Powell this morning, in Congressional
> > > testimony, specifically mentioned the Alaska dividend
> > > model for Iraq.  Senator Allen concurred.
> > >
> > I am a new member to this list and so would normally be inclined to
> > listen in for awhile before posting comments. However, I believe this
> > is an extremely important step in the direction of setting up a
> > reasonably just sharing of the rent fund associated with oil located
> > within Iraq's borders. A "citizens dividend" is certainly far less
> > arbitrary and more purposeful than, for example, the Saudi system,
> > where all revenues belong to the royal family, who claim an enormous
> > portion of the revenue for themselves before providing for public
> > goods and services.
> >
> > It is unfortunate that the rental value all natural resource-laden
> > lands is not treated as public revenue -- in all nations. Instead,
> > "rent funds" are largely appropriated by private interests while
> > earned income and produced assets are heavily burdened by taxation.
> >
> > Edward J. Dodson, Director
> > School of Cooperative Individualism
> > www.cooperativeindividualism.org
> >
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>
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