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The Social Dividend

The Social Dividend

12. Can you summarize the 3 factors that make up who invented the wheel and the crowbar. I discovered
our commonly-owned social capital? how to make electricity from waterfalls. I engineered
1. Natural resources; the internal combustion engine and now we have cars
2. Progress, resulting and airplanes. It is I who
harnessed chemistry for
in a shared cultural herit- the service of industry”.
age; No, these advances were
3. The benefits and in- developed by generations
crement of association that of researchers, inventors,
result from life in society. engineers and craftsmen.
13. What are the benefits Natural resources and
to each of us as owners of progress do not belong to
a commonly-owned social any one man. We are the
capital? equal co-heirs of past gen-
When this capital bears erations. They are every-
fruit it must bring its owners Life in society is a commonly one’s heritage.
an income without taking -owned productive asset. This is the rationale for
away the reward of those who have mobilized the cap- each person’s entitlement
ital, the labour force. to a periodic Dividend from the cradle to the grave.
14. Are we the true owners and heirs of this com- We do not live in society so that it is more difficult
monly-owned social capital? to obtain basic goods but so that they might be had
Yes! Every member of this generation is a co- more easily. If living together in society made it more
owner of the cultural heritage that was handed down difficult to access bare necessities, society would soon
disintegrate. It is therefore society’s duty to ensure
to us by previous generations. Improvements were
made from generation to generation; inventions fol- that each of its members be guaranteed the goods ne-
cessary to enjoy a decent life.
lowed one another, each serving as a stepping stone
to the next. The agitation and dislocation evident in modern
Applied science remains the greatest and most societies is because many people have difficulty meet-
important factor in modern production. No one alive ing their basic survival needs at the same time that we
today can say: “This all belongs to me. I am the one are witnesses to an enormous productive capacity.
Inheritance and Heirs

15. What do you mean by the right to claim one’s Industrialists and workers have rights to rewards
inheritance? for their efforts. But, the recognition of the efforts and
When a person dies he leaves his possessions to progress of past generations must bring rewards to
an heir. It may be that the heir has never worked on everyone as well. No one should be born destitute in a
his parents’ property; he might not have even earned world made rich by what was inherited from the past.
a single penny in his lifetime. Should he be denied the 17. Are we truly heirs?
right to inherit wealth from his parents on the grounds Yes! This is why the poor are called the disin-
that he has not earned it? Or should he be denied his herited. For them to be disinherited, they first must
inheritance because he is lazy or that he might squan- have had a heritage which was subsequently taken
der it? from them.
No! His parents have earned this for him and he is 18. I concur that machinery increases productivity
entitled to it. Legislation protects one’s right to inherit. and is the result of various technological advan-
16. Do we, as well, have rights to the cultural herit- cements. But once the machine is purchased by
age? an industrialist, is he not entitled to the profit?
Most surely! The greatest factor in modern pro- Yes, we recognize the right to profits for those who
duction, progress, was not earned by you or by me. have paid for machinery. But in each piece of machin-
It was earned for us by the generations who came ery or equipment there is an invention without which
before and who passed it on to us. Why should this the machine would be only a heap of steel parts. The
heritage be denied us on the specious grounds that invention, which we can call the “soul” of the machine,
we have not earned it? could not have been made nor passed on if we had u

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