https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/basic-income-funded-by-capital-... A common myth, promoted by the rich, is that wealth is produced individually before it is collectivized by the state, through taxation. In fact, wealth was always produced collectively and privatized by those with the power to do it: the propertied class. Farmland and seeds, pre-modern forms of capital, were collectively developed through generations of peasant endeavor that landlords appropriated by stealth.' Unlike <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede/posts/10154071239912828?comment_id=10154071246867828&ref=notif¬if_t=comment_mention¬if_id=1478268535346722#> · Reply <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede/posts/10154071239912828?comment_id=10154071246867828&ref=notif¬if_t=comment_mention¬if_id=1478268535346722#> · 1 <https://www.facebook.com/browse/likes?id=10154071243612828> · 58 mins <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede/posts/10154071239912828?comment_id=10154071243612828&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7D> <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede/posts/10154071239912828?comment_id=10154071246867828&ref=notif¬if_t=comment_mention¬if_id=1478268535346722#> [image: Sharon Ede] <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede?fref=ufi> Sharon Ede <https://www.facebook.com/sharon.ede?fref=ufi> 'Taxation is the wrong answer. Corporations pay taxes in exchange for services the state provides them, not for capital injections that must yield dividends. There is thus a strong case that the commons have a right to a share of the capital stock, and associated dividends, reflecting society’s investment in corporations’ capital. And, because it is impossible to calculate the size of state and social capital crystalized in any firm, we can decide how much of its capital stock the public should own only by means of a political mechanism. A simple policy would be to enact legislation requiring that a percentage of capital stock (shares) from every initial public offering (IPO) be channeled into a Commons Capital Depository, with the associated dividends funding a universal basic dividend (UBD). This UBD should, and can be, entirely independent of welfare payments, unemployment insurance, and so forth, thus ameliorating the concern that it would replace the welfare state, which embodies the concept of reciprocity between waged workers and the unemployed.' -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/