What if the wealthiest person in your town could only grow richer by helping everyone else get richer too?
That’s not a utopian dream. It’s a design choice. One that places communities at the centre of economic value, keeps tax dollars where they’re earned, and ties wealth growth to contribution, fairness, and sustainability.
Welcome to the Civic Equity System—an idea whose time has come.
By David Di Muro, Big Nose Fantasy Publishing
What if the wealthiest person in your town could only grow richer by helping everyone else get richer too?
That’s not a utopian dream. It’s a design choice. One that places communities at the centre of economic value, keeps tax dollars where they’re earned, and ties wealth growth to contribution, fairness, and sustainability.
Welcome to the Civic Equity System—an idea whose time has come.
Under today's model, wealth often multiplies without generating real value. Capital chases capital: speculators flip homes in communities they never live in, multinationals extract resources with little reinvestment, and elites accumulate gains detached from the lived experience of everyday people.
This has led to massive inequality. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report (2023), income and wealth disparities are ranked among the top threats to global stability. The UN echoes this, with Sustainable Development Goal 10 calling for reduced inequality within and among countries—yet many national systems currently work against this very aim.
Even our taxes are centralised away from the communities that generate them. The result? Services become bureaucratised and inefficient. Locals lose their voice. Disconnection spreads. And with it, distrust.
Localism is a game-changer. When tax revenue is retained by the communities that generate it, decisions become accountable. Public spending reflects actual needs. Infrastructure gets built where it’s needed—not where it's politically expedient.
The OECD Fiscal Decentralisation Database consistently finds that nations with stronger local fiscal control experience higher public satisfaction, better outcomes in education and infrastructure, and lower corruption rates.
Imagine this:
Housing, parks, transport, youth employment programs, and small business grants are managed by your local council—fully funded from the taxes you and your neighbours pay.
The federal government focuses solely on national responsibilities: defense, universal education standards, interstate infrastructure, and pandemic preparedness.
Every dollar you contribute is more transparent, more efficient, and more empowering.
This isn’t radical. It’s already happening in high-performing systems like Switzerland and parts of Scandinavia. It’s time Australia and others took note.
The Civic Equity System introduces a formula that reshapes incentive and reward:
Wealth Cap = Base Wealth + (Your Contribution × Resource Health) × (Lowest Earner / Inequality Level)^λ
Here’s how it works:
Base Wealth: Everyone has a secure foundation. Think universal basic capital—not just income, but access to opportunity.
Your Contribution: Calculated by your net value added to society—not financial manipulation, but real creation: jobs, inventions, education, sustainable enterprises.
Resource Health: If the planet suffers, we all suffer. This factor scales wealth caps based on environmental sustainability indices.
(Lowest Earner / Inequality Level)^λ: The heart of it all. The more equitable society becomes, the more everyone’s potential increases.
This structure aligns incentives with UN SDGs 1 (No Poverty), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Communities), and 12 (Responsible Consumption).
And the λ parameter? It’s a moral dial. The higher the λ, the more the system rewards equity over exploitation.
Under this model:
Nobody gets rich by keeping others poor.
Property is earned, not hoarded.
Wealth becomes a reflection of your positive social footprint.
Local democracy flourishes because funding and power are aligned.
The World Economic Forum has increasingly pushed for stakeholder capitalism, where businesses must serve customers, communities, and the planet—not just shareholders. The Civic Equity System takes that vision further and grounds it in measurable metrics and local responsibility.
Imagine a world where:
A rising tide truly lifts all boats—because it’s engineered to do so.
Local governments thrive with funding that reflects their output.
Environmental and social responsibility become profitable.
Citizens see the connection between effort, community, and reward.
This is the future we can build together.
A future where no one wins unless we all win.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2023: https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2023
OECD Fiscal Decentralisation Database: https://www.oecd.org/tax/federalism/fiscal-decentralisation-database.htm
WEF White Paper on Stakeholder Capitalism: https://www.weforum.org/whitepapers/measuring-stakeholder-capitalism
