C2.2 Labor Non-Necessity
Human Autonomy. Does the system maximize human freedom and self-determination?
Pass threshold
Unconditional provision covering 100% of basic needs (housing, food, healthcare, utilities) for all residents
What it asks
Survival and dignity not contingent on labor market participation. Unconditional baseline security with voluntary contribution pathways.
Why it matters
As automation makes labor optional, tying survival to employment creates artificial scarcity. Post-scarcity ethics requires decoupling survival from employment while maintaining contribution recognition and advancement opportunities.
How it differs from nearby criteria
Labor opportunity (valuable) from labor compulsion (coercive). Systems can and should provide meaningful work opportunities without making survival contingent on employment.
How it is measured
Provision of unconditional basic security covering essential needs (housing, food, healthcare, utilities) without work requirements, behavior conditions, or means testing.
Disclosure
"Unconditional" is the content of N2 itself, not an instrument clause, and stays; this is the one criterion that favors unconditional-provision designs by definition, and Paper v2.0 says so.
How scores are anchored
1.0, pass
Provision is explicitly unconditional. Fully Automated Luxury Communism (1.0): "labor becomes an optional hobby rather than survival requirement." CCO-PTF-CIP-SZH (1.0): "No work requirements, behavior conditions, or means testing."
0.5, partial
A real baseline exists but is time-limited, conditional, or requires some ongoing contribution. Nordic Social Democracy (0.5): "Generous... benefits provide baseline security, but still time-limited and conditional."
0.0, structural failure
No baseline security independent of labor market participation, whether by absence or by ideological commitment to full employment. Status Quo Market Capitalism (0.0): "Survival entirely contingent on labor market participation or charity." MMT+Job Guarantee (0.0): "Ideologically committed to full employment... fundamentally rejects the premise that labor can become optional."
This threshold is binary in character (unconditional or not) more than most others — score accordingly; partial credit here specifically means time-limited or conditional provision, not "provision covering less than 100% of needs."
Normative roots
From N2 (Labor Non-Necessity) + N1 (Human Flourishing).
How the systems score
0.5, partial
Participatory Economics, Integral, Degrowth Economics, Nordic Social Democracy, Market Socialism, Sovereign Wealth Fund Statism, Georgism / LVT, Mutual Credit / LETS, Universal Basic Services
0.0, structural failure
Ostrom Commons, Islamic Finance, State Capitalism / Singapore, MMT + Job Guarantee, Status Quo Market Capitalism, State Capitalism / China, Stakeholder Capitalism, State Capitalism / Qatar, Doughnut Economics, Libertarian Minarchism, Centrally Planned Socialism
Sources
Definition: Paper Section 6; restated in v2.0 (NEEC_Criteria_v2_s45.md, Appendix V). Anchors: Paper Appendix H.7.