The American Shareholder Amendment

Section 1. Citizen Ownership

The wealth generated by the nation's common inheritance belongs to the people of the nation. The natural resources of the United States, and the returns from infrastructure and research funded by public investment, are the common property of all citizens. Each citizen shall hold one equal and non-transferable share in this common property.

Section 2. The American Prosperity Fund

Congress shall establish a Fund to hold these assets and to distribute their returns to citizen-shareholders. The Fund shall operate in full public view; all transactions, holdings, and operations shall be matters of public record, and shall be auditable by any citizen.

Section 3. Inalienability

No law shall condition, reduce, delay, or withhold any citizen's share or distribution on grounds of income, employment, conduct, criminal history, or any other criterion. The share vests with citizenship, and shall not be sold, seized, transferred, or encumbered.

Distributions may be suspended only for the purposes of identity verification, fraud resolution, or the prevention of duplicate claim, under uniform rules and with prompt right of appeal.

Section 4. Automatic Distribution

Distributions shall be calculated by published formula and executed automatically. No official shall hold discretion to alter, delay, or condition the distribution due to any citizen.

Section 5. Corporate Exclusion

Legal entities, including corporations, trusts, and partnerships, are not citizens and shall hold no shares. Only persons holding citizenship shall be shareholders.

Section 6. Fund Integrity

The Fund shall not be borrowed against, raided, or pledged as collateral for any purpose other than the direct return of its proceeds to citizen-shareholders. Congress shall make no law diverting the assets of the Fund to other uses.

The principal of the Fund and the returns of the Fund shall be accounted for under separate public ledgers. Principal shall not be reclassified as return by statute or regulation.

Section 7. Provision Constraints

Provision systems funded by the Fund shall operate through publicly-owned infrastructure, nonprofit entities, or price-regulated providers. No such system shall permit charges exceeding documented cost plus a published reinvestment allowance, capped at five percent. Profit distributions are prohibited.

Section 8. Enforcement

Any citizen shall have standing to bring suit to compel compliance with this amendment, including the adequate capitalization of the Fund and the lawful conduct of its operations.