Revista (PDF) - Universidade do Minho

THE CASE FOR STAKEHOLDING 219
campaign for reelection. Under his proposal, every infant born in
Britain would receive a «baby bond» worth up to $750, which would
mature when he or she reached 18. The Treasury would make additional
deposits in each child’s account when he reaches 5, 11 and 16.
Thanks to compound interest, young adults would start life with as
much as $7,500. Obviously, $7,500 isn’t quite $80,000; and the lengthy
18 year transition before the first child gets his stake is much too
long for my taste. 3 Nonetheless, when Blair’s proposal is approved by
parliament, it will mark a great step forward for my project. Once a
stakeholding framework in put in place in Britain, there will be inevitable
agitation for higher stakes and shorter transition periods. So let
us consider some basic principles that should inform future efforts,
using my more ambitious program as a reference point.
First and foremost, stakeholders should be treated as free men and
women. They may use their money for any purpose they see fit – to
start a business or pay for higher education, to buy a house or raise a
family or save for the future. But they must take responsibility for their
choices. Their triumphs and blunders are their own.
At the end of their lives, stakeholders have a special responsibility.
Since the $80,000 was central in starting them off in life, it is only fair
for them to repay it at death if this is financially possible. The stakeholding
fund, in short, will be enriched each year by the ongoing contributions
of the wealthy, and by a final payback at death.
I have chosen $80,000 as the target stake because this is the cost
of a high quality, four year university education in America today.
For the 25 or 30 percent going to university, a key policy question is
whether we will continue with a policy of subsidized tuition now
that each student has the financial capacity to pay his way. This is a
complex issue, and I would be happy to discuss it further in the
question period.
But for now, I want to emphasize a key point: Even if you
ultimately decide that university students should pay most or all of
their stake as tuition, this should serve only as a prelude to further
discussion. After all, stakeholding offers unprecedented opportunities
for the vast majority who don’t go to university. Many of them have
been denied the decent secondary school education that should be every
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3 The most thoughtful effort to adapt stakeholding to the British context is by
David Nissan and Julian Le Grand, A Capital Idea: Start-Up Grants for Young People,
Fabian Society Policy Report No. 49, Feb. 2000 (www.fabian-society.org.uk).