Iraq Dividend Peace Plan - sharing instead of f...

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RAQ DIVIDEND PEACE PLAN by Governor Jay Hammond 1922-2005 Iraq Oil Revenue invested, returning an anual equal spinoff dividend to every adult and child in Iraq.

Former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond produced the video, "The Iraq Plan," about an Alaska-style dividend for Iraq. Jay said, "Had we not created a permanent fund here in Alaska ... no doubt those dollars would have all been spent in the traditional manner that has gotten those states and nations into trouble."

"To date we have a program which each year sends a check to each and every Alaskan ... that gives them a sense of ownership. It also inclines them to promote healthy development and to ensure that the maximum benefit from that natural resource development is equitably distributed.

"In many instances, states and nations that have had enormous amounts of oil wealth flow through their country have found themselves worse off. The reason being that a few people at the top of the heap reap the harvest and the little guy ... sees virtually nothing. Also, there's an inclination on the part of politicians ... to spend every dollar they can get their fingers on. The dividend program has created ... a militant ring of defense that surrounds the Permanent Fund. Whenever the politicians wish to invade it, the shareholders rise up in outrage, in protest."

The struggle in Iraq is "... evidence of the frustration and difficulty in coming up with any method and means to effectively offset the terrorism that is going on in that country today."

Hammond said "... there is another approach that I would much prefer ... that in Iraq, they adopt a program similar to what we have done in Alaska. Use their oil wealth to invest in spin-off dividends that would impact each and every Iraqi."

With an Iraq dividend, "there appeared to be the potential of establishing in Iraq, a democratic, capitalistic mindset on the part of the people. If they perceived it as our pipeline ... and that every time they interrupted oil flow, it was money out of their individual pockets, there would be a resistance to the type of thing that is occurring over there today." www.iraqdividend.com

Public resources should belong directly to the public....through mechanisms such as Alaska's permanent fund .. It is a model governments all over the world would be well-advised to copy. Jay Hammond

What better way to induce a capitalistic, democratic mind-set among Iraqis? Hammond said.
Far better than a few privileged kleptocrats living in opulent splendor while others grovel in squalor.

Without a Permanent Fund dividend program, Hammond said, Alaska will face the same fate as Nigeria. The World Bank estimates that $296 billion flowed in and out of that government's treasury during its oil boom, leaving them worse off than they were before, Hammond said.
The Economist magazine appropriately called such mismanaged oil wealth -the devil's excrement-, Hammond said. The pattern has been repeated around the globe where countries have come into an oil windfall, he said.

Absent something like our dividend program and ensuing public interest, those windfalls simply inflated a grab bag for special interests, he said.
Once deflated, the average citizen was left holding that empty bag, Hammond said.

Iraq is but the latest example.