what´s the point of dividends ? are they in any way like basic income ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income - I... don´t really get them. It seems to me that if the dividend algorithm were to distribute dividends equally, they would function as basic income, but when it´s distributed proportionally as it is now (from what I´ve understood), well I don´t really get the point of that. what´s the point of dividends ?
wouldn´t it be smarter to distribute them equally, in simple terms "redistribute from the rich to the poor - a basic income system" ? I´ve been thinking about integrating something like that with Ripple or Bitcoin for a while, and got excited when I heard of Bitshares, but it seems to me that the dividend algorithm is meant to achieve something else with it´s proportional redistribution, so I just wonder what the main point of them are, and if anyone sees the value in distributing them equally instead.
In the Bitshares White Paper, Bret Allsop commented :
How about something like: "an equal share of the total mining and transaction fees given to all Bitshares in existence."
on paragraph
Dividend - a share of the mining reward and transaction fees proportional to the number of BitShares owned relative to the total number of BitShares in existence.
thence it seems like there might be more dudes who have thought about this
Also, look at this : http://darkai.org/?p=1 - TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED BASIC INCOME AS A SOLUTION TO TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT
sorry if this is a stupid question, maybe I´m just tired, but there´s something I don´t understand.
if this receives any feedback then we should open a thread in this forum about it. I think Bytemaster might see what I´m talking about, we seem to think alike, I saw your post about "Display all balances in the GUI as a percentage of the money supply" and that´s something I´ve thought about for a year.
Dividends are simply a share of the profits in a company. If you own a piece of the company, you are entitled to a proportional piece of its profits. BitShares function like shares of stock in a company, entitling you to a share of its profits. That's why people buy any company's stock. They are buying rights to its profits. The more profits, the more valuable each share of stock becomes.
(Some people also buy those shares speculating that they will become more valuable, but this usually tied to the expectation the company will become more profitable.)
If you saved up your money and bought only one BitShare, one 4-millionth of a company, would you consider yourself "rich" and be ok with somebody redistributing your share of the earnings to someone else?
Companies are just collections of many shareholders who have all "chipped in" and bought a little piece of the company's earnings. It may be a big company, but it is still owned by a lot of little guys who worked hard to get their little piece of the pie.
If you were to take the company's earnings away from its rightful owners and give it to someone else you would be committing an immoral, if not criminal, act would you not? How would that be different than taking milk away from the owner of a cow?