Resource extraction is a wealth concentrator. it takes what is usually a public resource and converts it into wealth for very few people. Very few countries hav

Resource extraction is a wealth concentrator. it takes what is usually a public resource and converts it into wealth for very few people. Very few countries have avoided this giveaway of wealth by the state to the wealthy. Norway is one such example. We don't need to amend staking fees. We need the government to own significant equity in any resource extraction operation. Our foreign policy supports Western mining interests in the developing world. Any attempt to change this seems to result in some combination of crippling eceonomic sanctions and/or a mysterious coup by an authoritarian but US-friendly regime. Others have mentioned water rights and they're correct that this situation too is arcane and ridiculous. The "use it or lose it" water rights on the Colorado river causes us to grow water-intensive crops like alfalfa and sell them to Saudi Arabia (where growing alfalfa is illegal for this reason) and China. I'd extend this kind of public equity scheme to intellectual property too. Most drugs are developed with Federal funding and are largely just given away, again as a wealth concentrator. That fruits of Federal funding should come with public equity in commercialization.