Slashdot Mirror
Alaska: The Only US State Where Everyone Gets Free Money
merbs writes: Alaska’s Permanent Fund was established in 1976, in the midst of a black gold rush; the massive Trans-Alaska pipeline was in the process of being built, and the state had reaped $900 million in revenue from the sale of drilling leases in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in North America, in a matter of years. In a matter of a few more, it’d spent it. Alaskans soon recognized that their enormous oil reserves were nonetheless limited, so, with a kind of longterm forward-thinking rarely seen in politics today, they voted to add an amendment to the state constitution to establish a fund that would protect a portion of all incoming oil wealth for future generations. In 2014, the net income of the fund was $6.8 billion dollars and the dividend doled out $1,884 to 640,000 citizens, despite a decline in oil revenues that year.
I'd agree to that idea if and only if we can stop the vast tide of invaders that are currently overrunning my country's borders. And by 'stop' I mean 'shoot them dead'. Otherwise the great mass of humanity will try to enter into the land of free stuff, and eventually there will be a politician who will advance him/herself by making the invaders citizens, too -- and then there will never be enough people actually producing anything to pay for all the moochers.