Minimum Living Standard

Much has been made in the aftermath of the US Elections about a minimum wage for workers. I am reminded of the planet Amuart which not so long ago was politically quite similar to the planet Earth.

Amuart is a world filled with nation states. At the time of which I speak, each country was responsible for their individual citizen's quality of life. In some countries, most people did well. In other places, there were constant deaths that were easily preventable. Nowhere was poverty, starvation and poor health eliminated completely. The citizens finally got tired of always worrying about the welfare of their parents and of their children and especially of themselves.

"What if I lost my job or broke my paratel tenticle?" they wondered, "And no longer made enough to cover daily concerns?" These citizens demanded that their leaders provide a Minimum Living Standard or MLS for everyone.

What is the Minimum Living Standard? For the Amuartians, MLS meant running water for drinking and cleaning, sustainable daily calories and shelter for the night. Additionally, basic health care is included.

At first, only the wealthiest nations implemented an MLS plan. They issued to each of their citizens a card which could be used to access food, water and plumbling, sleeping rooms at night, as well as access to medical care. Then through treaties, international loans and some tenticle twisting all the nations of Amuart raised the quality of life to the Minimum Living Standard.

How was this paid for? In the begining, the MLS programs was paid for by taxes on the richest 3% of the planet's people. Then as the MLS began to eliminate unnecessary deaths, medical problems, crime and wars, it was easy for all the people to take up the small burden of maintaining the MLS. In fact, today Amuart's individual and collective taxes are at their lowest level in their history while their quality of life is unprecedented.

While I think an increase in your Minium Wage will do great good, I wonder if you will soon talk of a Minimum Living Standard?