While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. Eugene V. Debs
- Make a secure material foundation available to everyone
The world I would be trying to build is one where saying “I’m hurting” leads to attention, useful help, and a fair chance to change what happens next—and where people have enough security and freedom to spend more of their lives loving, learning, creating, and enjoying being alive.
Make a secure material foundation available to everyone.
Provide dependable access to food, clean water, safe housing, sanitation, education, and basic financial security. Include practical support when someone cannot work or needs help participating in daily life.
Prevent harm and make effective, compassionate care available.
Address illness, physical pain, mental distress, violence, abuse, and neglect. Include prevention, immediate relief, recovery, and repair after harm. People should be able to obtain help without humiliation.
Give people meaningful control over their lives.
Protect freedom, dignity, informed consent, privacy, and participation in decisions. Give people practical options to leave harmful situations, challenge unfair decisions, and pursue lives they value.
Help people navigate emotion, conflict, loss, and uncertainty.
Make emotional education, supportive relationships, counseling, and chosen contemplative practices accessible. Include communication, boundaries, grief, self-compassion, and asking for help. These should be resources people can use; receiving support should never depend on becoming sufficiently calm or resilient.
Make belonging, play, beauty, and meaning part of ordinary life.
Create opportunities for friendship, community, creativity, humor, learning, meaningful contribution, and rest. Preserve both connection and the freedom to enjoy solitude.
Make institutions fair, accountable, and dependable.
Align incentives, resources, and responsibilities with people’s well-being. Include accessible complaints procedures, independent review, consequences for preventable harm, and ongoing evaluation of whether people’s lives are improving.
https://www.openresearchlab.org/ https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/131/4/1973/2468874?redirectedFrom=fulltext | Area | Main finding | |---|---| | Spending | Measured household spending increased by at least $300 per month, with the largest increases involving housing, food, and car expenses. (Alex Bartik) | | Work | The latest published analysis estimates employment was about 4.2 percentage points lower, and recipients worked approximately 1–2 fewer hours per week. Individual income excluding the payments was about $1,900 lower per year. (Oxford Academic) | | Job quality and education | The researchers did not detect improvements in overall job quality or a statistically significant increase in degree attainment. (Oxford Academic) | | Stress and health | Stress and food security improved initially, but the improvements faded. The study found no improvement in measured physical health or clinical biomarkers, and no mental-health improvement after the first year. Use of some healthcare services increased. (NBER) | | Financial position | Self-reported financial health and credit scores improved. Modest estimated asset gains were offset by additional debt, leaving an approximately zero estimated effect on net worth. (Alex Bartik) | | Parenting and children | Parents spent more on their children and reported improvements in supervision and some parenting practices. There were no clear improvements in school outcomes; parents also reported more child difficulties, whose interpretation remains uncertain. (OpenResearch) |
For every recurring harm, I would ask:
Who can prevent it, what are they rewarded for, and what happens when they ignore it?
Build a way to learn whether life is actually improving
| Area | Questions I would track | |---|---| | Material security | Can people obtain food and maintain safe housing? What happens after a financial shock? | | Care | Can people get needed help? How long do they wait? Do they report meaningful relief? | | Safety | Can people live without violence, abuse, or intimidation? Can they obtain protection? | | Agency | Do people understand their options, participate in decisions, and obtain fair review? | | Connection | Do people have support they can rely on and opportunities to participate? | | Fairness | Which groups remain worse off, even when the overall results improve? |
Causes of suffering
- Physical pain or illness
- Loneliness
- Loss
- Repeated frightening or condemning thoughts
- Conflict about meaning
Life Extension Clock
Open Data Policy and Simulation Verification
Sims for the real world
Incentivizing Good Deeds
References
- https://mitsloan.mit.edu/shared/ods/documents?PublicationDocumentID=5173&utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://www-leland.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/engelbart/append2-ntb.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://hiveresearchlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/march_1991_exploration_and_exploitation_in_organizational_learning.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/manso/hhmi.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://academic.oup.com/icc/article/27/5/803/5127692?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://numinous.productions/ttft/?utm_source=chatgpt.com