The Stakeholder Society

Bruce Arnold Ackerman, Anne L. Alstott

Yale University Press, 1999 - Business & Economics - 296 pages

A quarter century of trickle-down economics has failed. Economic inequality in the United States has dramatically increased. Many, alas, seem resigned to this growing chasm between rich and poor. But what would happen, ask Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, if America were to make good on its promise of equal opportunity by granting every qualifying young adult a citizenís stake of eighty thousand dollars? Ackerman and Alstott argue that every American citizen has the right to share in the wealth accumulated by preceding generations. The distribution of wealth is currently so skewed that the stakeholding fund could be financed by an annual tax of two percent on the property owned by the richest forty percent of Americans. Ackerman and Alstott analyze their initiative from moral, political, economic, legal, and human perspectives.

What people are saying

User Review -

This book inspired me to consider problems from an opposite set of circumstances. For example, the authors suggest that rather than wait to give social security at older ages we might offer high school grads a bolus of money as a social stake at the beginning of their adult careers. Some might choose to go to college with that money, many probably would test out other ways to leverage the stake. 

User Review -

Zakāt (Arabic: زكاة‎ [zæˈkæː], "that which purifies"[1] or "alms"), one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is the giving of a fixed portion of one's wealth to charity, generally to the poor and needy
its 2.5% only.
already introduce by prohet muhammad 1400 years ago.

About the author

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University, and the author or coauthor of more than fifteen books on political philosophy, constitutional law, and public policy, including "Social Justice in the Liberal State, The Stakeholder Society, "and" Deliberation Day," all published by Yale University Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Stakeholder Society
• Authors: Bruce Arnold Ackerman, Anne L. Alstott
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 1999
• ISBN: 0300082606, 9780300082609
• Length: 296 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Public Finance; Political Science / American Government / General; Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy