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[P] Right to a Reasonable Income

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Imperium Anglorum

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Category: Social Justice | Proposed by: Wallenburg

[I]Recognizing[/I] the plight of individuals of the poor working class, who may not be able to afford shelter, food, or other basic necessities;

[I]Urging[/I] nations to recognize the needs of the poor and implement programs to aid them either through employment or welfare;

[I]Disappointed[/I] that the wording of GAR #344, clause 5b. essentially allows any and all member states to ignore its provisions upon the claim that they "cannot guarantee a minimum standard of living without causing substantial and lasting harm to their economy".

[I]Defining[/I] for the purposes of this resolution:

[LIST]
[*]the "poverty line" as the minimum wage or salary per week necessary to meet the cost of essential nutritional sustenance, the cost of an average one-person dwelling, and the cost of whatever utilities widely available to the majority of the nation's citizens;
[*]a person hired or contracted to work 40 hours or more per week to be in "full-time employment".  National governments may extend this definition to include those working fewer than 40 hours per week;
[*]a person hired or contracted to work more than 10 hours but less than a full-time employee to be in "part-time employment";
[*]"income" as the total money an individual collects from employment and government welfare or relief;
[/LIST]

[I]The World Assembly Hereby[/I]:

[I]Requires[/I] that national governments re-evaluate the poverty line on at least an annual basis.  Governments may collect this data by region and set living wages appropriately for each region;

[I]Requires[/I] that no person in full-time employment receive a total income less than the wage or salary equivalent of the poverty line, and that no person in part-time employment receive less income than this wage or salary, reduced in proportion to the fewer number of hours of work;

[I]Acknowledges[/I] member nations' right to allow or disallow employers to substitute wage payment with goods and services of equivalent monetary value, given the consent of the employed.

[I]Exempts[/I] from protections under this resolution:

[LIST]
[*]Volunteer workers;
[*]Participants in apprenticeships or similar workplace training programs offered in good faith, considering these educational programs and therefore not intended to supplement wages;
[*]Incarcerated convicts not involved in a rehabilitation program;
[/LIST]
To be honest, I don't care for the proposal. It is entirely unnecessary after the passage of the Minimum Standard of Living Act. Furthermore, the author has been quite incorrigible on the front of allowing that governments be able to suspend such laws should trying times occur. It also does not deal with issues that could arise in the case that this legislation would cause substantial and lasting harm to an economy. Because of the risk from these issues in such a diverse place as NationStates, I am personally opposed to this proposal.

In the end, there is already legislation on this topic in the form of 344 GA. There is no need for more such legislation. The proposal seeks to solve a problem already solved. It will likely come to a vote in the near future, so it has received its own thread.
 

Imperium Anglorum

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[I]Greetings, fellow Ambassadors to the World Assembly:[/I]

I'm going to keep this fairly short. I am contacting you to approve my proposal [URL="http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_view_proposal/id=wallenburg_1444585653"][B]"Right to a Reasonable Income"[/B][/URL], which seeks to fill major loopholes left by the existing "Minimum Standard of Living Act".

In brief, my proposal calls for the guarantee of a basic living income--whether guaranteed via a minimum wage, government welfare, or privately funded aid--to hardworking citizens of each member state. Member states are guaranteed the right to decide how employers pay wages, and special exceptions to this proposal's protections are made for volunteer workers, apprentices, and incarcerated convicts.

You may approve this proposal [URL="http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_view_proposal/id=wallenburg_1444585653"]here[/URL], or review discussion on this proposal [URL="http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=25770627#p25770627"]here[/URL].

Thank you for your time, and I hope you give this proposal your approval. If you have any concerns about how "Right to a Reasonable Income" would affect your nation, I encourage you to telegram me.

[I]Helen Trevanyika[/I]
Representative from Wallenburg
This telegram was received from the author (r: The Nether) on 13 October 2015.
 
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Imperium Anglorum

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Ardortia said:
I am telegramming you to request that you vote against the current proposal at vote: Right to a Reasonable Income. There are significant flaws in the resolution which fundamentally endanger the economic stability of nations all whilst making recovery from recessions harder and driving up the burden of government in large sectors of the economy.
Ardortia said:
As the proposal author has already , there are 'troubling flaws with this legislation' and since it is not changeable after being submitted, it is impossible to 'work immediately to resolve [those flaws]'.

The proposal does not consider the effect on nations currently in a recession. With interplay from the disguised welfare recently passed, it would mandate that with any job losses from these issues are then taken up by government-funded welfare systems.

This would drive up demands on your budget. Then, you would have to raise taxes (or risk debt default), leading to more job losses, leading to more unemployment, and leading to more welfare pressure. This means higher taxes and more unemployment, putting more people out of work and any gainful employment.

It also fails to account for inflation. The effect of increasing costs in a strong economy would simply do nothing but lead to more inflation as the economies of the world struggle to deal with those costs. Businesses will raise prices to deal with these costs, increasing inflation and reducing stability in your country.

The proposal author has also failed to account for labor demands in the case of an invasion. If your nation is invaded, this proposal prevents your nation from drafting labor from the populace with massive paywalls. This is directly detrimental to your national security should a military crisis occur.

I hope you vote against this proposal for the admitted flaws in this proposal. It increases the burden of welfare on government budgets. It fails to deal with inflation while having a massively inflationary effect. It endangers national security by forcing cash-strapped governments to provide civilian-sector comforts in the middle of an armed invasion.

These all endanger your economy and your government's security itself. If you have any questions, please go to the official forum .

Yours faithfully,

The Principality of Ardortia
Nation of NationStates

This telegram was received from Ardortia (r: NationStates) on 14 October 2015.
 
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Imperium Anglorum

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With an internal European vote of 25-58, I have affirmed my initial stack against this proposal.
 
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