Useful AI and learning
The proposal calls this universal intelligence: access to tools and knowledge that help people understand, create and make decisions.
Share capability, income and time.
Automation can expand what we produce. Whether that improves lives depends on access, ownership and how the gains are shared. Mutual Futures connects useful intelligence for everyone with the aim of an adequate income and time to choose how to live.
Practical help and financial security
Enough to meet real needs
Universal adequate income means aiming for enough income for everyone to live adequately, including through care, study and retirement.
More choice
Financial security and practical help could make it easier to choose a path, change direction or say no.
What would enough income mean?
An adequate income would need to reflect real living costs and circumstances. Housing, disability, caring responsibilities, household size and location all matter. The proposal still needs a definition, a funding plan and rules about who would receive support. No payment amount or entitlement has been established.
| Design question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who is included? | A universal objective includes people outside any acquired business or member network. |
| What is adequate? | The proposed benchmark needs an understandable basis and a way to reflect real circumstances. |
| How is it funded? | Trading surplus, services and other possible mechanisms are different sources, not interchangeable promises. |
| What changes over time? | Prices, needs, productive capacity and technology change; the model needs revision rather than a fixed slogan. |
| Who decides and reviews? | People affected need understandable choices, explanations and routes to challenge mistakes. |
What shared businesses could contribute
Wages, public services, social protection and shared productive assets are different parts of income security. A successful member-owned business can contribute, but it cannot by itself provide for everyone. The wider design must include carers, children, people unable to work and those outside any business network.
Recognise voluntary care without pricing it
C-Hour records verified voluntary human time separately from money and outcomes. That recognition can sit alongside paid employment and adequate income. Community-chosen thanks and reciprocity remain possible, without a fixed cash conversion or substituting unpaid effort for wages.
Sources for this section
D11 · C-Hour: Joyful Responsible Abundance D13 · UNGA81: Joyful Responsible Abundance