Over the past week we’ve seen some possible breakthrough steps toward a basic income. Did you miss that news? Not surprising, because it’s been buried in news reports about the Copenhagen Climate talks.

Sen. Maria Cantwell from Washington is introducing a bill calling for “cap and dividend” — a cap on emissions, with permits being auctioned off and the revenue distributed to American citizens. Here’s a quote from a McLatchy News story:

Under her bill, the federal government would auction off carbon shares to the nation’s 2,000 or so fuel producers like coal and oil companies. Every two years, the shares would expire and, over the years, the U.S. government would offer fewer and fewer shares for sale as a way to reduce carbon consumption.

Seventy-five percent of the money raised would be rebated directly to U.S. citizens. Cantwell’s office estimated that an average family of four would receive a total of about $1,100 a year in the form of tax-free monthly checks.

An important point is that the proposal seems to have some bipartisan support in the Senate, and even support from oil companies. The complete story, with the title “New Proposal Would Pay Americans a Percent of Carbon Permits” is here.

An even stronger version of this idea was in the New York Times a few days earlier. James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, had a an op-ed denouncing the Democratic party’ “cap and trade” plan, and calling instead for “fee and dividend.” It’s an idea Hansen has advocated for some time, and that I’ve written about before.

Here’s an excerpt from Hansen’s op-ed:

Under this approach, a gradually rising carbon fee would be collected at the mine or port of entry for each fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas). The fee would be uniform, a certain number of dollars per ton of carbon dioxide in the fuel. The public would not directly pay any fee, but the price of goods would rise in proportion to how much carbon-emitting fuel is used in their production.All of the collected fees would then be distributed to the public. Prudent people would use their dividend wisely, adjusting their lifestyle, choice of vehicle and so on. Those who do better than average in choosing less-polluting goods would receive more in the dividend than they pay in added costs.

For example, when the fee reached $115 per ton of carbon dioxide it would add $1 per gallon to the price of gasoline and 5 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour to the price of electricity. Given the amount of oil, gas and coal used in the United States in 2007, that carbon fee would yield about $600 billion per year. The resulting dividend for each adult American would be as much as $3,000 per year.

The complete piece, with the title “Cap and Fade” is here.

Fee and dividend, cap and dividend, tax and dividend — whatever you call it, and whatever the size of the dividends — this is the most direct and politically-feasible way to move toward a basic income in the United States.

The idea is so simple and powerful.  Tax fossil fuel consumption and redistribute the revenues on a per capita basis. The net effects would reduce consumption and pollution and climate change overall, while promoting social justice and a stronger democracy.  I discuss this in more detail in my book, Peaceful, Positive Revolution: Economic Security for Every American.

Steven Shafarman

It’s a phrase politicians, pundits, and ordinary people often use, so often that it’s a cliché, something we say without thinking. Have you ever thought about it?

What is “our government”?

My answer, probably like most peoples’, starts with some patriotic chestnuts, “We the People” and “government of, by, and for the people.” That’s really not useful, however, unless we press further and pursue a more concrete and specific definition of “the people.”

“Our” implies ownership. Right? If government really is “ours,” we ought to be able to do with it as we choose, direct it to serve our needs and interests.

That’s not happening. We’ve had repeated, dramatic, potentially conclusive evidence in recent years that our government primarily serves the interests of Wall Street banks and investment firms, oil companies, military industries, and other big corporations.

The evidence: bank bailouts and climate change, to start, along with the absurd amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in our health care system. There’s the war in Iraq, which was engineered by the Bush administration for their political purposes and the profits of their favored special interests. And much more.

For me, “our government” and “We the People” are only meaningful when every citizen is somehow included. Each and every individual citizen. Living human beings only. Not corporations.

Every citizen, moreover, must be included equally. You, as a citizen, and me, too, and our friends and family members and neighbors, ought to have equal rights and political opportunities with Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and other celebrities and billionaires.

Have you ever tried to contact your member of Congress, governor, or other elected official? Did you succeed? Did he or she respond personally?

Gates, Trump, Winfrey, etc., probably get their phone calls returned. Don’t you think?

These are some reasons I strongly support the idea of a guaranteed basic income, Citizen Dividends. Every citizen would at least be able to get onto the political and economic playing fields.

To learn more, visit the home page and other material on this web site, www.IncomeSecurityForAll.org.

You can read the complete plan, the idea and how we can implement it, in Peaceful, Positive Revolution, which is available from Tendril Press.

Steven Shafarman