Social Safety Trampoline

A common concern for meritocratists is what we do for people who do not succeed in the system, or for other reasons cannot perform at prior level due to e.g. permanent illness. As such, this page lists better policies on what to do for people struggling in a meritocratic system. We will contrast them with the contemporary, and very dysfunctional, system.

Many countries have experimented with “the social safety net” in post-war America/Europe, but we think too many get tangled-up in that net. It pretty much has a history of becoming a social safety spiderweb, that decrease self-worth of individual and efficiency of society. Hence, we propose “trampoline” as a more positive modifier, focused on getting people speedily back into workforce. 

Key Points:

  • Society should satisfy basic needs
  • We need special provisions for children affected by grave limits of their caregivers (e.g. poor, ill, absent, etc.)
  • Keep track of unemployment and underemployment
  • Make self-improvement easily available
    • Develop abilities/skill advancement application
    • Offer free job search and career program
  • Reward public officials who reduce unemployment
    • More pay for performance
  • All social safety policies must be sustainable
    • Borrowed money should not be primary funding
    • Should not be funded through excessive taxes
  • Public sector should focus on ROI