Don’t let Cliven Bundy see a copy of Peter Barnes’s new book, “With Liberty and Dividends For All.” Bundy, the Nevada rancher who turned his refusal to pay cattle grazing fees into an improbable cause célèbre, told a Utah gathering of the reactionary Independent American Party on Aug. 2 that God had called on him to prevent a civil war. But “With Liberty and Dividends For All” argues that the federal government isn’t collecting enough revenue from businesses that use resources belonging to all Americans. Barnes’s book, published this week, proposes collecting those fees in earnest and using them to furnish cash dividends to U.S. citizens, thereby reducing the wealth inequality that, according to Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century,” risks reviving the aristocracy of inherited wealth. The dividends idea may seem an unacceptably radical solution, but Founding Father Tom Paine once proposed a similar idea. What’s more, this scheme already exists in Alaska, where it’s been championed by a succession of Republican governors – including Sarah Palin.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 06:01:10 +0000
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