Share the World — five steps to a fair society

by Hank Pellissier & Akanksha Pandey

INTRODUCTION

Poverty is a crippling social disease. Poor people get sick easier, die younger, receive less education, are more depressed, stressed, pessimistic, traumatized by crime, politically dis-empowered and socially victimized.

Sharing wealth equitably is needed. A recent Oxfam study claims billionaires control enough money to end extreme poverty seven times over.

Below we present a list of reforms to eliminate the shameful injustice of poverty. They serve as a guidebook to global egalitarianism; fair distribution of wealth to alleviate suffering.

Primary inspirations were Kerala (India), Rojava, Henry George, Huey Long, Thomas Piketty.

SHARE THE LAND

Agricultural Land

• Limit farmland ownership to 7.5 acres per person, 15 acres for family of 4, 20 acres for large families. [1] Worker collectives can own 5 acres per person.
• Farmland must be used; if it is unused, give it to those who will use it, but only to people educated or experienced in farming practices.
• Establish rural squatter’s rights.

Urban Land

• Allow only one residence per person or family. The goal is to provide everyone with affordable home ownership. If people want vacation homes, or a second home, they can swap houses temporarily. If people want to rent, they can rent publicly constructed units.
• Municipalities should be designed so one-third of the area is public space.
• Build vertical cities and underground cities to provide more horizontal space for public or agricultural use.
• Encourage urban vertical farming to increase availability of land.
• Support urban squatters rights to live in unoccupied buildings.

Wild Land

• National, state, county parks, forests, seashores, etc., should be owned, directed, and staffed by the closest municipality.

Transport

• Eliminate toll roads and bridges. [3]
• Free right-of-way land privileges in the transport of water, electricity, sewage systems, telecommunications, travelers, and goods. [4]

Borders

• Support easier border crossing, immigration, and elimination of visa costs to encourage free movement of people
• Replace nation-states with “vast transnational democracy” that results in “free circulation of people, and de facto abolition of borders.” [5]

NOTES ON “SHARE THE LAND”

[1] Kerala, India, established these maximum amounts.

[2][3] Huey Long; Share the Wealth

[4] Henry George

[5] Thomas Piketty; Capital and Ideology.

SHARE THE MONEY

Taxes

• Mandate a sharp rise in progressive income tax. [1]
• Tax inherited wealth. [2]
• Religious organizations and buildings should not be given tax exemptions.
• Allow no one to own more than $38 million (in the USA). [3]
• Tax luxury goods 20%.
• Tax vices like alcohol, cigarettes, and sugary food & beverages 20%.
• Eliminate property taxes on poor households.
• Reduce automobile and truck license fees by 60–80%.

Reparations

Give reparations given to groups impoverished by history:

• Blacks in USA for slavery and denial of loans.
• Congo ravaged by Leopold of Belgium
• South Africans under apartheid
• Dalits and Adivasis in India.
• Africans enslaved and robbed by Europeans.
• India stripped of wealth by Britain. One estimate says $45 trillion was stolen.

Income & Universal Basic Income

• Surplus funds from taxes provides a “citizen’s dividend” aka, universal basic income (UBI) that is 60% of average adult’s net worth.
• Tax revenue provides a “capital endowment” of $231,000 to USA citizens when they turn twenty-five years old.
• Maximum salary should be no more than 8X the minimum salary. In the USA: $25/hour — $200/hour, i.e., $50,000 — $400,000 annually.
• 30-hour work week.

Corporations

• Use international cooperation to end off shore tax havens. (10% of global monetary assets are presently hidden). Establish an international corporate tax rate and/or requiring corporation headquarters to be in the nation where their staff is employed.
• Eliminate corporate monopolies by heavily fining predatory take-over activity.
• Require corporate bosses required to share power with workers, for “true social ownership of capital.” [4]

NOTES ON “SHARE THE MONEY”

[1][2][3][4] Thomas Piketty; Capital and Ideology

SHARE THE RESOURCES

Raw Materials

• Nationalize Minerals
• Nationalize Oil and Gas
• Nationalize Forests
• Provide food and clothes free to the poor

Technology

• Nationalize Utilities
• Nationalize steel mills & factories or re-organize as large worker collectives.
• Nationalize Banks
• Provide free public transportation
• Nationalize Health Care

SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE

• Free education PreK through college.
• $900/month to every college student to help pay expenses while they study.
• Free bus transportation & free textbooks to school children.
• Three free nutritious meals a day for school children.
• Class size limited to 18 in K-3, 22 from Grades 4–8, and 25 in high school.
• Free adult literacy classes [1] and free vocational training. [2]
• Free internet access — wifi — available worldwide.
• Abolish or limit intellectual property privileges and limit copyright. [8]

NOTES ON “SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE”

[1] [2] Huey Long, Share the Wealth

SHARE POLITICAL POWER

• Abolish monarchies
• Political campaigns should be publicly funded — no donations from corporations or individuals.
• Constitutions should be improved to promote democracy.
• Presidential governments should be scrapped or changed to the parliamentary system — the latter is democratically superior.
• Multiple parties should be encouraged, with coalitions of non-majority groups.
• Support independence movements of secessionist groups that want self-autonomy.
• Promote Tinyism, Urbanism, Localism (micro-states)
• Support gender equity in political leadership. [1] [2]
• Install Direct Democracy via reforms and technology.
• “Bottom up” self-governance is the goal — not “top down” governance. Promote “participatory democracy” instead of “representative democracy.” [3] [4]

NOTES ON “SHARE POLITICAL POWER”

[1] Kerala State, India, alternates gender leadership in the mayor’s office of its six largest cities. Male mayors are followed by female mayors, etc.

[2] Rojava (Northeast Syria) has co-leadership in its communes — one man and one woman.

[3] Kerala, India has 1,200 self-governing bodies and is praised as the “vanguard of participatory democracy.”

[4] Rojava

ADDENDUM BY AKANKSHA PANDEY

Agricultural land

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I firmly believe that we shall not derive the full benefit of agriculture until we take to cooperative farming.”

Acharya Bhave believed land belongs to all and like air and water its uses ought to be universal. He believed that in order to eliminate economic inequality the land owners should share their lands with the tillers and the landless brothers.

Urban Land

TPS (Town Planning Scheme) in Gujarat (and Maharashtra) is a land pooling model to tackle issues of land acquisition and rehabilitation. The approach keeps the local community in mind.

Wild Land

If we judiciously own and use our wild lands we will ultimately save ourselves and can maintain a great relationship. Local authorities should look after wild land like national forests etc which will ultimately form a chain globally.

Borders

Consideration should be given to coordinating policies and resources to ensure potential migrants have access to sufficient regular channels for migration, including response to migrant labor needs at all skills levels as well as for family reunification purposes.

Taxes

Governments need to remove all income tax exemptions. In India there are 70 tax exemptions and deductions.

UBI

Between 2011 and 2012, a pilot project in the state of Madhya Pradesh gave basic income to 6,000 Indians. In the study, every man, woman, and child in eight villages received a monthly payment: 200 rupees ($2.80) for adults and 100 rupees for each child (paid to the guardian). After one year, the payments increased to 300 and 150 rupees, respectively. Meanwhile, 12 similar villages received no basic income, acting as a control group. Report results HERE.

Share the Knowledge

“Gaining knowledge, is the first step to wisdom. Sharing it, is the first step to humanity.” — Ben Franklin

Education is the best weapon to bring equality among people.