I have seen a growing effort to lump Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend in with so-called universal basic income (UBI) schemes coming out of Washington. Some point to pilot programs in other states or academic papers that label the PFD the world’s only functional UBI and claim it is all the same thing. Some conservatives begin to believe that hype and decide they no longer care about the PFD because of it. That’s a mistake. It is simply not true, and Alaskans should reject it outright.
The PFD is not a government handout. It is not tax money, collected from some, that politicians decide to pass out when they feel generous. It is the people’s share of our resource wealth. Alaskans collectively own the oil, gas and minerals under our feet and in our waters. The earnings from those Alaskan resources fund the Permanent Fund. When politicians withhold or divert the Dividend, they are not trimming a program. They are taking value from the owners.
When voters created the Alaska Permanent Fund in 1976 via constitutional amendment, Article IX, Section 15, the purpose was clear: protect a portion of our resource revenue for future generations. Oil and minerals are finite assets, not an endless revenue stream. Setting aside a portion of those royalties into a fund that generates earnings is good stewardship. It keeps that money out of the political cycle and prevents it from being spent away in Juneau on whatever is popular that year. Using a portion of the earnings to fund state government and avoid broad-based taxes is also sound fiscal management. Finally, giving a fraction of that interest income to Alaskans as a dividend provides a return on our shared investment to each and every resource owner. A share of the realized earnings should go directly back to the people, equally, without a means test and without strings.
That is not redistribution. It is recognition of ownership.
The French economist Frédéric Bastiat warned about legal plunder, when government stops protecting property and instead takes from one group to give to another. When the state diverts the dividend, the portion meant to be returned to Alaskans, in order to feed a growing bureaucracy, that is far closer to Bastiat’s warning than anything the PFD represents. The dividend goes to every Alaskan, rich or poor, working or retired, because every Alaskan is a resource owner.
The dividend is rooted in ownership and restraint. It reflects Alaska’s sovereignty over its resources and a belief that government should serve the people, not the other way around.
Contrast this homegrown, sustainable model with federal guaranteed income experiments. Many were launched during and after the COVID era. They were funded by deficit spending and federal borrowing. In several cases, work hours declined as cash payments reduced the immediate need to earn. That is the problem with artificial stimulus: it pulls demand forward, drives up costs, and leaves debt behind. We have lived through that cycle. Massive federal spending flooded into Alaska. Prices rose. Savings eroded. The bill always remains.
The PFD operates on a different foundation. It is tied to real earnings from real assets. It does not rely on borrowing. It does not depend on new taxes. It does not create a permanent entitlement funded by future generations. It reflects a conservative principle: limit government, respect property rights and trust citizens to make their own decisions.
When a family receives its dividend, that money moves through the private economy. It helps pay local businesses for heating fuel in January, groceries, school clothes, or a set of tires so someone can get to work. The small business owner who receives that payment hires help, orders inventory and pays bills. That is the free market at work, not money routed through a bureaucracy. It is driven by families making practical decisions in their own communities.
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Real prosperity does not come from top-down programs. It comes from work, enterprise, and allowing people to keep what is theirs. Endless government expansion drains the productive base. The dividend, by contrast, returns value directly to households who then invest, save, or spend as they see fit.
So, when someone tries to paint the PFD as socialism, push back. The dividend is rooted in ownership and restraint. It reflects Alaska’s sovereignty over its resources and a belief that government should serve the people, not the other way around.
We created the Permanent Fund to endure for generations. And the dividend was not designed to be a reserve account for the latest spending idea. If we believe in limited government and in the rights of Alaskans to their own resource wealth, then we should defend the dividend with the same conviction. That was Hammond’s charge for the militant ring of Alaskans. When the legislature moves to spend the dividend, Alaskans should rally to protect the Permanent Fund itself.
Let’s keep the dividend intact and protect the fund itself from political raids. Let us preserve our revenue stream for the families who truly own it.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
