Economic Systems
If you have read About Centrarian.com you know that politics cannot be centered without also centering economics ― which means correcting the economic system so it lives up to the claims of conservatives, namely that it efficiently allocate resources and approximate a merit system. The purpose of this page is to outline what is needed to accomplish this.
Private Property: Prevailing definitions of private property allow individuals to collect, not just merited compensation for their own labor, ideas and contributions to the economy, but unmerited shares of natural resource rents and output produced by people now dead. This needs to be corrected by having a new form of private property which allows individuals to claim their equal share (equal since no one individual has any greater right to a share than any other) of these non-individual sources of income). This would provide a base income for everyone, making the system both more equal and more of a true merit system.
Externalities are side effects whose costs or benefits are not included in decisions because they affect other parties without adequate compensation. The classic example of a negative externality is pollution generated a company affecting the health of people living downwind. An example of a positive externality is the increased selling price nearby home owners receive as a result of having a store or a mall being built nearby. Mechanisms need to be found to “internalize” such externalities so that when economic decisions are made they consider all the effects.
Uncompensated public costs and benefits are externalities that affect the general public rather than, or in addition to, private parties. These include environmental, economic, educational, and social effects of actions. As with externalities that affect private parties, mechanisms need to be found to internalize uncompensated public costs and benefits so that economic decisions are made with all of the effects being properly considered.
