Birth deposit
Every newborn receives an automatically opened public account.
Ownership · Chapter 20
An Ownership Society for Everyone
Income pays today’s bills; wealth changes what options a family can take tomorrow. The book’s ownership agenda therefore adds a universal public asset at birth and larger deposits for children starting with less family wealth.
Chapter 20
Give every child an asset, not only an income stream.
The account is universal at birth and progressive in its public deposits. The book uses the federal child-account infrastructure created in 2025 as an administrative base, while changing the deposit schedule so children from low-wealth families receive more public capital.
Annual public deposit
Sliding-scale annual deposits up to $2,000 for low-wealth families.
Qualified access
Education or training, a first home, starting or investing in a business, or long-term retirement saving.
Low-cost investment
Diversified, low-fee funds under fiduciary standards modeled on Thrift Savings Plan principles.
Opportunity Endowment Growth Engine
Test how a larger birth endowment could compound through adulthood.
This is an illustrative design sandbox for endowments from $10,000 to $25,000. It is separate from the exact Chapter 20 formula, which uses a smaller universal birth deposit plus progressive annual public deposits.
Applied annual match$1,000through age 18 in this illustration
Public deposits through 18$33,000birth endowment + annual matching
Projected balance at 18$0constant-return illustration
The proposal in brief
At a glance
Goal
A society in which most households own assets and a child’s starting wealth depends less on the family into which the child is born.
Instrument
American Opportunity Accounts with a universal birth deposit and progressive annual deposits; employee ownership and profit sharing; taxation of large unrealized gains at death and a stronger estate tax; expanded small-business and community lending; a federal commission to study redress for slavery and its effects.
Who pays
Opportunity Accounts $50–70B/year at full implementation from general revenue, partly offset by taxation of gains at death. Author planning estimate.
Who implements
Treasury and IRS; a TSP-like federal investment platform; SBA and CDFI Fund; a statutory redress commission.
Legal vehicle
Federal statute throughout; no constitutional amendment.
Principal risk
Account balances remain too small relative to inherited wealth, or contribution rules mainly subsidize families already able to save.
Measure / failure trigger
Median age-18 balance for children from low-wealth families, positive net worth among young adults, first-generation homeownership, and racial/ethnic median-wealth ratios; redesign deposit schedule if the first full cohort does not narrow starting-balance gaps.
The Strongest Counterargument & Our Response
Best case against
The best case against the accounts is that the payoff arrives too late for families struggling now, while restricting uses at age eighteen is paternalistic and may still expose young adults to bad investments, predatory schools, or overheated housing markets.
The author's response
The chapter treats the accounts as an ownership policy, not a replacement for current income support. Qualified uses, low-cost default funds, fiduciary rules, financial counseling, and exclusion from benefit asset tests are intended to protect the account while preserving meaningful choice.
What remains uncertain
The book does not claim that a $25,000–$45,000 balance eliminates the wealth gap. The appropriate public deposit schedule, behavioral effects, and interaction with private family contributions require data after the first cohorts accumulate balances.