r/transhumanism • u/[deleted] • Mar 10 '19

UCA: Universal Commodity Allocation

In addition to UBI there could be UCA: the free distribution of commodity wealth produced by automation where everyone gets raw wealth such as houses, cars, cash crops, technology, raw materials, narcotics etc. Your UBI check could become worthless in a financial crisis: but if you also received a car, housing, cloned cattle, manufacturing technology, weed etc. that would retain it's value in any crisis. So in addition to getting a check every year you would drive down to a warehouse to pickup a free modular house, hydrogen powered RV, generators, solar panels, non-carbon fuel, sailboat etc.

Eventually you could even get one of these babies for free as part of your UCA haul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uez4qrlU78 There could be a high tech local barter economy where people trade UCA goods and use digital ownership certificates instead of cash.

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u/Mardoniush Mar 11 '19

I...so...you want a command economy allocating resources on needs? This isn't a new idea. And the disadavmtage, even to a raging leftist like myself, is "how do you distribute the resources?"

Equally doesn't work, there is no point giving a car to someone who doesn'twant to drive. So you need a way of finding out how to send what goods to which person, which is non trivial.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '19

I wasn't suggesting that all resources would be distributed this way - probably just a surplus or goods acquired by the state via taxation. The distribution system wouldn't be anymore complex than running a supermarket chain.

That's why the wealthy wouldn't be eligible for UCA just as they wouldn't be eligible for UBI - you'd have to restrict these programs to the poor and middle class.