Economics

WHAT I WANT GUARANTEED

My current position is capitalism as the market controller with a socialist baseline of care. Everyone should have enough for a modest but genuinely fulfilling life, including people who choose not to work.

That floor should include food, water, healthcare, housing, education, internet access, basic transportation, utilities, childcare, and income or equivalent support with room for leisure and personal choice. It does not need to include luxury.

I support it because severe deprivation destroys practical agency. Choosing between starvation and exploitation is not meaningfully free.

MARKETS ABOVE THE FLOOR

I currently favor markets for scarce goods and things people want beyond the baseline. Work, skill, ownership, risk, and building useful systems can earn access to more, not determine whether someone can live safely.

Markets are an allocation tool, not proof that everyone received what they morally deserved. Society can deliberately reward work it depends on, especially maintaining infrastructure and automation.

I would consider an AI-assisted alternative if it demonstrably allocated resources better while preserving autonomy and avoiding concentrated control.

AUTOMATION

I want monotonous compulsory work automated as aggressively as reasonably possible. The goal is less labor required for survival and more room to go deeper into what people care about.

People who build, repair, and maintain the systems making that possible should be paid substantially more. Paid work can still buy luxuries without being required to stay alive.

WHEN WEALTH BECOMES A PROBLEM

I do not object to inequality or want an intrinsic upper limit on wealth. I care about what wealth allows someone to do.

Large fortunes are acceptable to me while the floor is secure, competition remains real, and institutions remain democratically responsive. The problem is purchasing policy, capturing institutions, blocking competition, or creating coercive dependence.

Private economic power should not become unaccountable control over people or the political system.

The political limits on power →

WHAT I HAVEN’T DESIGNED

I have not worked out exact taxes, benefit levels, direct provision versus income, antitrust thresholds, corporate-size limits, or the regulatory system. Those mechanisms need evidence, public debate, and democratic decision-making.

I care more about whether the system provides the floor and prevents unaccountable power than whether every part fits one ideological label.