[FRIAM] The case for universal basic income UBI

[⛧ glen]

Hm. OK. The problem I see with allowing a supernatural component into the legal system is a lack of access to a "touchstone", a transpersonal objective truth. Supernatural access, even if such exists, is notoriously exploitable by defectors, perhaps including a cabal of crony Bishops. By disallowing it, we scope the legal system to some ground truth, some universally verifiable fact.

I know you have myriad arguments against our current attempts at ground truth (aka science). And as a pluralist and agnostic, I'm sympathetic. But such skepticism doesn't give us the justification for ignoring how helpful such a ground truth would be in limiting defection in a multidimensional "market".

On May 9, 2021 8:13:24 AM PDT, Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>With one slight modification, I agree completely with glen's five
>principles. The exception: *"there is nothing supernatural, so all
>solutions have to be built on science."* The closest thing to a
>"cultural universal" (a practice, norm, technology, custom, etc. that
>is shared by all cultures) is a belief in a *supernatural*. I see no
>problem in basing a "solution" — a non-money-based social structure —
>on such a belief.
>
>The most prominent examples of societies/cultures that do not use money
>internally, would be the Mennonites and the Amish. Both do use money
>externally, i.e. for interactions with outsiders. An example that I am
>more familiar with is the **United Order** established by Brigham
>Young.
>
>Orderville is a small town about 20 miles south of where I live and was
>the last community to practice the United Order. Just before its
>demise, the community numbered in several thousands and engaged in
>enterprises that included mining, ranching, lumber mill, textile and
>garment manufacturing, cotton growing, mercantile and trade, etc. The
>geographic range of the community covered all of Arizona north of the
>Grand Canyon, as far as present day Las Vegas, and the southern third
>of Utah.
>
>It was a Mormon community and all shared a common belief in a
>'supernatural' and that belief played an integral role in the
>organization of the community. For example, the Bishop's Storehouse —
>both literal and metaphorical — was the repository of all goods and
>produce from the community and the Bishop, a religious leader, was
>charged with protection and distribution of contents among the populace
>according to need. But a Bishop is not a full-time religious figure —
>the church, even today, has less than 100 people who are 'paid clergy'
>— and not an authoritarian figure. Although there was a division of
>labor (men seldom worked in the communal kitchen and women seldom
>engaged in ranching or mining) it was primarily an egalitarian society.
>Women also tended to exert civil and social authority over the
>community while men exercised religious authority.
>
>Everyone, including children from age 8 and older (age of baptism), had
>direct access to the supernatural (to God) and was expected to use that
>access to determine correct actions and make decisions with regard
>every aspect of life. 
>
>All of this functioned (internally) without any form of money (or
>similar abstraction).
>
>Orderville was disbanded when the US Government took control of Utah,
>took away women's right to vote, confiscated property of anyone with
>any connection to polygyny, and imposed a Washington-based civil
>authority.
>
>Because the "economy" of these cultures is based on a mixture of
>balanced and general reciprocity, there is no need for money within the
>society.
>
>There is no reason that these cultures could not scale to at least
>'national' scales except, perhaps, those like the Amish that eschew
>technology and the "modern."
>
>for what it is worth,
>
>davew
>
-- 
glen ⛧