A Crazy Way to Tax People
Strictly a Thought Experiment
This is not a proposal. It is a thought experiment. I have already warned you that the idea is crazy. But then again “crazy” is neither necessary nor sufficient for “bad”.
You decide…
Citizens are shareholders
The country is a corporation. Each citizen owns exactly one share. A citizen gets the share at birth or upon acquiring citizenship, and gives up the share at death or upon relinquishing citizenship.
The corporation’s shareholders own all the resources of the country, in proportion to their share ownership, i.e., equally.
No other entity owns anything.
Citizens can rent resources from the corporation
These could be land, money, access to natural resources etc, basically any tradable resource. This “rent” is the only “tax” that citizens pay.
Groups of citizens (e.g. other corporates, the state itself) could also rent resources.
The Rent Rate is decided by a shareholder vote
This way, citizens can encourage growth (with lower rents) or cool down the economy (with higher rents).
The Rent is returned to the citizens
The rent collected is returned to the citizens in proportion to their share ownership; i.e. equally.
Optionally, the citizens might vote to spend some proportion of the rent collected on public services, before returning the remainder.
Thoughts?
