Caring for the Poor

NewVistas welfare provides a safety net for participants who are experiencing temporary problems or permanently unable to work. 

A NewVistas community does not tax regular income, but it levies an automatic 10% tax on dividends paid to its participant investors. This tax is used solely to help the community’s poor with needs such as rent, food, clothing, healthcare, and business training.

Welfare funds are administered primarily by villages to meet basic needs and also by districts and other community agencies to help participants become productive as a contractor or in a business.

Assuming a community’s total capital is, for example, $5 billion and annual dividends are paid out at 12%, the annual welfare tax collected would be $60 million, an average of $600 per individual. For comparison, the U.S. spends about $1 trillion per year on welfare, which averages $3,000 in tax paid per individual. 

Thus, NewVistas communities must be more efficient than today’s national welfare in taking care of the poor among them.

If a village develops a surplus of charitable funds, they give the excess back to the general community fund. If an entire community builds up excess welfare funds, they can grant the funds to needier communities.