The Decentralist Papers · Paper VIII of XX
The National Dividend
Your Share of the Union's Productivity
A Continental Union of roughly one billion people, run well, is a $100 trillion economy (Paper XIX). That is $100,000 per person in economic activity every year.
Today a large share of that is absorbed by federal bureaucracy, lost to corruption, or suppressed by cartels and failed governments across the hemisphere.
The Decentralist proposal: the National Dividend.
With a federal government limited to defense, courts, and foreign policy, federal spending falls to a fraction of today’s. The surplus belongs to the citizens who produced it.
How it works:
- Federal revenue (tariff + consumption tax) funds the three core functions
- Surplus after those functions is calculated annually and published
- The surplus is divided equally among all citizens
- Every man, woman, and child receives a share
This is not welfare and it is not UBI. Welfare is means-tested and administered. UBI is funded by taxing labor. A dividend is a share of a surplus that already exists, paid to shareholders. If there is no surplus, there is no dividend. The incentive runs the right way: citizens want a lean government because the savings are theirs.
The working assumption: a surplus of 10% of GDP.
$10 trillion ÷ 1 billion citizens = $10,000 per citizen per year.
That number moves with the economy and with how lean the government actually is. It is an estimate, not a promise.
The pro-family effect:
Each child is a citizen. Each citizen gets a share.
| Family Size | Dividend Shares | Annual Dividend |
|---|---|---|
| Single adult | 1 share | $10,000 |
| Married couple | 2 shares | $20,000 |
| Family of 4 | 4 shares | $40,000 |
| Family of 5 | 5 shares | $50,000 |
Under the current system both parents must work and daycare costs more than college. Under this one, a child brings a dividend share, and one parent can afford to stay home if the family wants that.
A working parent earning $60,000, family of 5:
- $48,000 take-home (80%)
- $6,000 into personal savings (10%)
- $6,000 tithe to the local community (10%)
- $50,000 family dividend (5 shares)
- Household: $98,000 liquid plus $6,000 saved, and no income tax filing.
Compare: $60,000 gross today is roughly $45,000 after federal and state taxes, with no dividend and no forced savings.
This is not redistribution. It is a return on ownership.