Oil Wealth Dividend For Every Alaskan = $845.76; Iraqis Dividend = Ø

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB6E5S8VDE.html

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Nearly every Alaska resident will receive an $845.76 check this year as their share of the state's oil riches - the fifth straight year that the payout has dropped.

The dividend checks are distributed every year from an oil royalty account called the Alaska Permanent Fund, created in 1976 after oil was discovered on the North Slope. Some 603,080 Alaskans are expected to receive dividends this year.

For video store clerk Dave Marshall, the annual payout means getting a chance to escape the dark, cold winter of the far north. This year, he's thinking Hawaii.

"Somewhere nice and warm," said the 18-year-old Juneau resident. "You've got to leave once in a while."

[oneighty]

1. Sharing the wealth

generated by our natural resources.

What a unique idea. I wonder who thought of that? Marx? Lenin?

Certainly not the political leadership of Alaska.

A real vote getter.

180

[Toots]

2. Do you never receive interest from any bank account?

This is not from oil revenue it is from their "Permanent Fund" which is nothing more than a large bank account that gets the interest it receives divided up among Alaska residents. You really should get more informed before spouting off. The "Fund" originally was created from oil leases and royalties but since it's conception it is nothing but a very large bank account that the people of the state will not let anyone tap into. Actually the people only receive one quarter of the interest. The state receives one quarter and the other half is put back into the fund to grow it. It is actually a very slick idea and amazing the rest of Americans are not aware enough to create their own such situation. They apparently just want to bash some Americans for saving their money.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I think you are full of shit

You say the fund was created from from oil leases and royalties. But you also say this fund did not come from oil revenues? That makes little sense. And I never suggested the Alaskans should not receive this money as you imply either. That crazy shit just came from your own twisted mind. So back the fuck off.

Don

[Toots]

5. You obviously misread my post

What I said was the dividends received do not come from oil, they come from the interest/earning from the Permanent Fund. What was your purpose of the original post but to put down Alaskans for their good sense? :shrug:

[NNN0LHI]

6. I feel like I am talking to Abbott and Costello here

What you said was the dividends received do not come from oil, they come from the interest/earning from the Permanent Fund. But where did the money for the Permanent Fund originally come from? It came from oil leases and royalties. Didn't it?

Who's on first?

Don

[Toots]

7. The original fund in 1975 did yes

Since then no. Every year the fund has grown on it's own from it's investments. It started out as a nine billion dollar fund established from oil wealth. Since then it has grown to over thirty billion dollars. Oil still helps to run the state though since they have no tax there in Alaska.

[Modem Butterfly]

4. It's not directly related to oil revenues

As your article states, it's from a royalty fund, which explains the drop in the fund.

I went to school at the University of Oregon, and knew a lot of kids who got the dividend fund. Back then it was over $1000, as I recall.