Basic assistance

Revision as of 09:22, 29 September 2014

It will be many years until the Uniting Amendment is ratified and even more until it's effects take hold. By it's very nature, the amendment has a long-term scope. It's about the future. But what will the future be like?

We can have a glimpse of the future by looking at the trajectory of technology. There has been an acceleration of increased productivity due to advancements in information technology and robotics. And that will likely continue: more stuff will be produced with less labor. Our labor-saving devices will save labor, duh! Going forward, the demand for workers is going to decrease and that decline in demand will accelerate. There will be fewer and fewer jobs, along with less aggregate scarcity of the necessities of life. The effects on society will be profound as we approach the technological singularity.

More and more people will not be working; at least not working in the traditional sense. And this will happen as the baby-boom generation has left the workforce for retirement, further exacerbating the problem. Many of those people will not be able to support themselves, paradoxically, at a time when there is a general abundance of the necessities of life. We are already seeing these effects in the widening of the distribution of incomes. Current policymakers, from both government and business, are attempting to address the issue with outdated hegemonic tactics. If this continues, large segments of the population will become unable to support themselves, politicians will demand even more power to “fix” the problem and the result will be political instability.

How can this problem be addressed while preserving freedom and fairness? We can't continue to hand over our freedoms to the politicians. Relying on voluntary charity may not be sufficient to accommodate everyone in need and when people must rely on the charity of a few, it significantly reduces their freedom. Simply allowing people to languish is inconsistent with a compassionate society.

To address the problem, the Uniting Amendment establishes a single Basic Assistance Fund to provide direct monetary payments to those in need. Up to one-half of revenues to the Treasury may be used to provide for those who cannot care for themselves. Payments from the fund are sufficient to provide all basic needs and are in lieu of all other government assistance, and there is no byzantine bureaucracy needed to administer dozens of different programs. It's simple and fair. And it provides for all people in need with less cost than our current programs.

Having a simple method to provide basic assistance also eliminates the need for a minimum wage. If people know that they have a reliable safety net to fall back on, they will be able to demand a higher wage within a free market. Wages will be higher without imposing pricing mandates on businesses.

Strategically, the Basic Assistance Fund will provide a buffer that will maintain political stability while we transition to an as-yet-unknown future beyond the event horizon of the technological singularity.