Page 7 - A Social Dividend: An Income Guaranteed to Each Citizen

The Social Dividend

12. Can you summarize the 3 factors that make I discovered how to make electricity from water-
up our commonly-owned social capital? falls. I engineered the internal combustion engine
1. Natural resources; and now we have cars and airplanes. It is I who
2. Progress, resulting harnessed chemistry for
the service of industry”.
in a shared cultural herit- No, these advances were
age; developed by generations
3. The benefits and of researchers, inventors,
increment of association engineers and craftsmen.
that result from life in so- Natural resources and
ciety. progress do not belong
13. What are the benefits to any one man. We are
to each of us as the equal co-heirs of past
owners of a common- generations. They are
ly-owned social capital? Life in society is a commonly everyone’s heritage.
When this capital bears -owned productive asset. This is the rationale
fruit it must bring its owners an income without tak- for each person’s entitlement to a periodic Divi-
ing away the reward of those who have mobilized dend from the cradle to the grave.
the capital, the labour force. We do not live in society so that it is more diffi-
14. Are we the true owners and heirs of this cult to obtain basic goods but so that they might be
commonly-owned social capital? had more easily. If living together in society made
Yes! Every member of this generation is a it more difficult to access bare necessities, society
co-owner of the cultural heritage that was handed would soon disintegrate. It is therefore society’s
down to us by previous generations. Improve- duty to ensure that each of its members be guar-
ments were made from generation to generation; anteed the goods necessary to enjoy a decent life.
inventions followed one another, each serving as a The agitation and dislocation evident in modern
stepping stone to the next. societies is because many people have difficulty
Applied science remains the greatest and most meeting their basic survival needs at the same time
important factor in modern production. No one that we are witnesses to an enormous productive
alive today can say: “This all belongs to me. I am capacity.
the one who invented the wheel and the crowbar.
Inheritance and Heirs

15. What do you mean by the right to claim one’s It was earned for us by the generations who came
inheritance? before and who passed it on to us. Why should this
When a person dies he leaves his possessions heritage be denied us on the specious grounds that
to an heir. It may be that the heir has never worked we have not earned it?
on his parents’ property; he might not have even Industrialists and workers have rights to rewards
earned a single penny in his lifetime. Should he be for their efforts. But, the recognition of the efforts
denied the right to inherit wealth from his parents on and progress of past generations must bring re-
the grounds that he has not earned it? Or should he wards to everyone as well. No one should be born
be denied his inheritance because he is lazy or that destitute in a world made rich by what was inherited
he might squander it? from the past.
No! His parents have earned this for him and 17. Are we truly heirs?
he is entitled to it. Legislation protects one’s right to Yes! This is why the poor are called the disin-
inherit. herited. For them to be disinherited, they first must
16. Do we, as well, have rights to the cultural herit- have had a heritage which was subsequently taken
age? from them.
Most surely! The greatest factor in modern pro- 18. I concur that machinery increases productivity
duction, progress, was not earned by you or by me. and is the result of various technological advan- u

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