Very useful article Mr. Wolforth.  As soon as Hammond's original concept of the PFD linked to length of residence was defeated, the legislature could have shifted that dividend benefit from individuals to local communities for the general welfare of those communities and to create local governments.
    Instead our elected officials encouraged the creation of the current oligarchy we have now. Vast sums of wealth remained concentrated at the state government level and local governments became totally dependent on that state government.  To illustrate, after all those billions and all those years we still are using honey buckets in many areas of Alaska and where law enforcement can, at best, only react to serious situations.  The individual dividend has become nothing more than "hush money" to placate the populace while the state government, with all that available cash, became the ATM that created economic "winners" in a quid pro quo of political support for state funding.