Introduction: Success in Alaska

Abstract

Every year, every Alaskan gets paid. Every man, woman, and child receives a dividend as a joint owner of Alaska’s oil reserves. In 1956, Alaska ratified a constitution recognizing joint ownership of unoccupied land and natural resources. In 1967, North America’s largest oil reserve was discovered in publicly owned areas on Alaska’s North Slope. In 1976, the state government voted to dedicate a small part of its yearly oil revenues to a state investment fund, called the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF). In 1982, the state government voted to distribute part of the returns from that fund as a yearly dividend, called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), sometimes called “the Alaska Dividend,” to every Alaskan. In 2008, the dividend (plus a onetime supplement of $1,200 from that year’s state government budget surplus) reached a high of $3,269, which comes to $16,345 for a family of five. More often in recent years the PFD has been between $1,000 and $1,500 per person, which comes to between $5000 and $7500 for a family of five.