Taiwan had an Ideathon, like a Hackathon but for ideas, in November. One submission category was to write a news article set in the year 2040. I believe the evaluation criteria are “the futuristic nature of the entry, creativity, and presentation.” Considering the next submission category is a “prototype” aka designs and whatnot, I’m guessing most of the submissions are more strictly technology focused, so maybe I’ll stand out a bit by taking a more economic / philosophical / political angle. Anyway, below is the submission, pages and pages of maybe naive daydreaming about what life could be like for people if we just took some of that capitalist pressure off.
UPDATE: For some reason, the submission was set as a “Future Prototype” submission, not “Future News.” I have no idea how that happened, but it probably resulted in me being considered poorly against the category, as that category required more formal technical documentation type things, whereas my submission is a simple news article.
It can be seen here: https://www.ideathon.tw/en/futurePrototype/view/e06c354922c3fe4653772ba345d0afb0
Submission:
Article in The Times, March, 2040
(The Times does not exist in 2022, it is a fictional paper with a deliberately generic name)
TAIPEI: Unemployment in Taiwan reaches a coveted rate of 100%, a key goal of the government’s Universal Human Rights (UHR) initiative. “As of today, Taiwan has accomplished the primary goal of any industrialized nation: the guarantee of all foundational needs to survive for its people, regardless of their income,” Minister X– of the Ministry of Finance said at a press conference following the announcement. “This milestone will allow us to change our focus from problems we should have solved decades ago, such as making sure everyone has food and shelter, to the hard problems of this century, such as fending off climate change.”
The announcement, via the Ministry of Finance’s website, initially led to confusion, as it contradicted popular method of tracking nationwide unemployment, a website called “maslowtracking.tw,” built by independent labor activists and fed with a combination of government data and independent university data sources. However, following an extensive audit performed in concert by multiple NGOs and researchers, the website has been updated to agree with the government’s position that Taiwan has achieved 100% unemployment. When asked, Minister X– apologized for the confusion, saying “While we somewhat regret making an announcement before conferring with our independent colleagues, we hope people understand that this was due to our own excitement, and not because of any desire to hide information.”
The unemployment goal has been a forefront of President Z–’s administration, continuing on the objective their predecessor established when they, in cooperation with the Legislative Yuan, promoted and enacted the “Statute for Achieving Maslow’s Foundations,” known colloquially as the “Maslow Statute,” a massive initiative to provide universal access to the basic foundations for a healthy human life.
During the press conference, Minister X– summarized the government’s objectives. “I know even today, and despite our efforts at total transparency and cooperative public education, some might hear an announcement like this and wonder how they were able to buy coffee at a coffee shop today if ’everyone is unemployed.’ I bet there are people wondering if they’ve been missed in a census, because they have work tomorrow. To reiterate, in coordination with independent researchers, the Ministry of Finance now tracks two kinds of ‘unemployment.’ The first is what people used to think of as ‘unemployment’: simply when people didn’t have a job. We now refer to that as ‘augmentative unemployment.’” The Minister went on to describe the time and effort invested in choosing the term, and directed those curious to investigate the public discussion records on choosing new terms, which was performed on a distributed and independently audited chat network, and is archived at https://data.gov.tw. “We call it ‘augmentative’ because it can augment your life, either with meaning or, perhaps more simply, money. To be ‘augmentatively unemployed’ simply means you choose not to do this kind of work, which should now be possible for all people in Taiwan as of today, because as of today, nobody is working simply to rent their basic foundational needs.”
They added, “in the past, most of us had to be ’employed’ or we would face unimaginable hardship or even death. Now, nobody has to worry about that, nobody has to work just to stay alive. We are all now unemployed!”
As part of the Maslow Statute, the government had formally established a list of needs for a healthy human life, also known as “Maslow’s Foundations.” Differing slightly from the “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” from which they draw their name, the achievement of universal access to these foundational rights was the goal of the Statute, and was one of the many efforts of the UHR initiative in general, which also deals with legal, ethical, and philosophical human rights in the traditional sense, such as the right to a fair trial, the right to be equal with all others before the law, or the national ban on slavery, all of which had been enshrined and clarified in the Taiwanese constitution as part of the UHR initiative. The Statute itself established the universal foundational rights to be as follows:
- Air: universal and unrestricted access to unharmful air
- Shelter: access to permanent and private shelter, including the means to power, heat, and cool it
- Water: universal and unrestricted access to drinkable water
- Food: universal and unrestricted access to a physiologically and psychologically enriching variety and amount of food
- Clothing: universal and unrestricted access to clothing that is physiologically, psychologically, and sociologically safe and enriching
- Reproduction: universal access to the technological current standard means to control one’s reproductive functions and ensure sexual safety, regardless of gender, sex, or orientation
- Health: universal access to physical and psychological health services, treatments, medications, and surgeries
- Education: universal access to all levels of education
- Information: universal, secure, and private access to information, especially governmental information, as well as universal access to tools for discerning information from disinformation
- Transportation: universal and unrestricted means to access all accessible portions of the country
Minister X– referred to a chart of Maslow’s Foundations and indicated item 2, “Shelter,” and said “Achieving universal access to shelter has always been the top focus of the Maslow Statute and this Ministry from the very start, yet it was the final item to achieve 100% completion, thus allowing us to formally declare unemployment at 100%. Our obstacles were larger than we ever could have imagined, but thankfully, due to a landmark deal last week between the government and J– Bank, the last of the housing units in Taiwan have been transferred to housing-guaranteed status, and therefore nobody needs to fear an income-based eviction.”
Minister X– clarified the agreed-upon measurement for “unemployment,” saying: “In accordance to guidelines established with Y– University and several NGOs, it was agreed that an unemployment percentage would be measured against more immediately purchasable, and lacking, foundational needs, that without which present immediate risks to healthy or psychological well being. For that reason, our announcement today means that all in Taiwan can choose to forgo augmentative employment without fear of losing their home or their healthcare, without fear of going hungry or their water being shut off, without fear of not being able to send their children to a good school. Now, we can focus on improving all of our rights together, such as by cleaning our air, improving our transportation options, and improving our healthcare and education opportunities.”
As part of the Statute, the government, in concert with individual contributors and researchers, published a civilian-friendly guide to understanding the implications, objectives, and implementations of the Statute, titled “Reader’s Guide to Maslow’s Foundations: Understanding Foundational Rights.” The guide clarified measures and outcomes, such as those announced today, and worked to establish national terms and definitions to avoid disinformation. For example, the guide describes the government’s explicit commitment to maintaining personal property as follows: “Some might think that a universal guarantee of shelter means that strangers can move into your house whenever they want, and not pay rent, or, that the government might make you share your room with a houseless person. However, that’s not true. Instead, the current strategy for ensuring all people have shelter is a combination system dependent on several factors. For those that already live in a home, such as renters or homeowners, an unemployed-housing-guarantee will be achieved through a combination of national rent-single-payership, wherein the government, coordinating with independent researchers and audits, will organize regional fair rent pricing and employment-based payment sharing, as well as incentivized ownership transfer and tax benefits for landlords willing to sell their properties into a nationalized housing system. For homeowners, a system of mortgage single-payership similar to the rent system will be negotiated between the government and banks, with further incentivisation and tax benefits for banks and corporations to sell properties into a nationalized housing system. For non mortgaged properties, land taxes will be adjusted per employment situations. For those that don’t have homes, vacant housing situations will be provided as per a person’s needs, with careful coordination with the local community, neighbors, and social work NGOs, to ensure a successful integration on all sides. In short, nobody has to worry about their grandma losing her home or needing to go back to work because she can’t afford taxes or her mortgage, and, if she choses, combined with universal transportation, she will even be able to move closer to her family in a city rather than need to live in a rural area to save money on housing, or be locked into a house because it was paid off and she doesn’t have the capital to get a new mortgage.”
Per the “Reader’s Guide,” other foundational rights are clarified, such as transportation, of which the Guide says “Universal Access to transportation is probably already quite familiar to residents of Taipei, which set fare rates to 0 NTD for all MRT, bus, and U-Bike rides in 2027. This change will be brought to the rest of the country, either through nationalized services setting fares to 0NTD, or, for private transportation services, the establishment of government subsidies for necessary services, such as quarantine taxis, ambulances, accessibility access vehicles, or taxis or private transport options for locations that still lack bus or train access. Private transportation options, such as the HSR, normal taxi services, private vehicles, and airlines, may receive partial subsidy, but will likely require augmentative employment to be used regularly.”
Taipei’s universalization of public transit, before the UHR initiative and similar global movements, was met with criticism from fiscal hawks. In the years following, however, economic studies on the effects of the universalization, including by The Times, indicated the loss of fares, offset by penny taxes in various sectors, were rapidly overcome by dramatically increased economic activity, which created an unexpected spike in tax revenues pre-budgeted to the Department of Transportation of Taipei (which had merged and been established as an umbrella Department to all metro-related services in Taipei and New Taipei City two years prior). The spike allowed for an overhaul in transit services, leading to advancements such as electrification of busses, speeds improvements to and expansion of TRA and MRT trains (including on the far-overburdened Brown Line), and the building of new MRT stations in Wulai, Shenkeng, and Shiding districts. L– Y–, then-mayor of New Taipei City, was quoted at the time as saying “nothing brings me more joy than having enough time when I get off work to simply take a train and enjoy a hot spring in Wulai, with time again to be home for dinner,” referring to an oft-cited study at the time that found that all locations within the borders of Taipei and New Taipei city were, during daytime hours, accessible in under an hour and a half trip on public transit.
Minister X– expounded on the value of “augmentative employment” during the press conference. “While I am happy that our hard working parents and grandparents can all finally truly rest without worry, I applaud all of you who choose to continue to work, especially in critical services such as infrastructure or medical care, and public servants such as government workers, police, and firefighters. With the milestone of 100% unemployment achieved, we can now genuinely pay these workers the admiration they have always deserved. No longer will someone be accused of doing a job ‘just to make a living.’ Since nobody has to work to stay alive and healthy anymore, the next time you see a firefighter, you know they’re still doing it because of their passion for helping people.”
During the question and answer section of the press conference, Minister X– was asked what would happen if everyone decided to stop working. They answered, “This is a common fear. If the Ministry of Finance and the government in general had worked to achieve this monumental goal alone, perhaps the answer to that question would be, ‘society would collapse, power plants would shut down, trash would overflow in the streets, and ambulances would never show up to emergencies.’ Luckily, thanks to the transparency and communication efforts coordinated by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, we were able to establish action plans for common concerns like this. Remember that we’ve been above 50% unemployment for nearly 5 years now. If all of those people had stopped working, that is to say, also become augmentatively unemployed, that already would have been a national emergency. So first off, it turns out, 100% augmented unemployment may not be a real risk. But just in case, the government has established a transparent plan for extreme cases such as all of a city’s sewage workers deciding to quit on the same day. There’s a lot of details, which I invite anybody to read for themselves at data.gov.tw, but in short, by combining extensive automation with general transparent data sharing, we can, in the example of a city’s sewage system, drastically reduce the amount of day to day labor needed to maintain operations, as well as crowdsource what labor remains. Of course, we still sometimes need people to come tighten pipes with a wrench, for which we have established multiple-point-of-failure systems of engaging and educating citizen volunteers that can respond to an employment crisis. We believe that in the worst case like you mentioned, we can activate our network of volunteers to maintain services at a safe level for more than long enough to find a more long term solution. Of course, in the absolute worst case for critical infrastructure, we can also always call on local citizen’s militias or the various national Army Corps, with whom we’ve been actively coordinating emergency preparedness plans.”
Minister X– was asked a follow-up question about augmentative employment rates. “The most interesting thing about the last ten years for me has been how all my expectations have been turned on their head. Like many of you, when President Y– announced the UHR intiative, I assumed most people would prefer to stay at home and watch TV, especially young people. In fact, it seems augmentative employment rates have stayed very close to what we used to call ’employment rates.’ The demographics were also surprising: it seems more young people are working now than before, and there has been a surge in semi-early retirement. But what surprised me the most was that we have seen a historically high rate of employment among the elderly! For as long as we’ve been tracking employment, never before have there been this many people ages 70 and up working.” They went on to say that they believe a combination of increased healthcare outcomes through improving technology and access, as well as transportation access and improvements, may be contributing to this. “It may also have something to do with parents being able to spend much more time at home with their children, freeing grandparents up from babysitter duty,” he added, laughing. He reminded everyone that the data and research on demographics is all available on data.gov.tw.
Minister X– closed the press conference with a Ministry statement about plans for the future. “I know some people are wondering if the Ministry will simply shut down now, but I hope to remind everyone that 100% unemployment was just one of the many goals of the UHR initiative. We have a lot of work to do with improving socialized services and access. Transportation options, though universally accessible, still heavily favors urban areas, with some rural townships only getting a few buses a day. We also have work to do ensuring new healthcare technologies and techniques are made universally accessible in a way that is fair to the people of Taiwan and the companies and people that invent these new technologies. While government subsidy and meal centers have ensured nobody will ever go hungry in Taiwan again, there’s lots of exciting opportunities around subsidized food access and education that could create some very interesting economic activity in the restaurant sector, as well as add more variety to those that choose total-food-subsidization, that is to say, the completely augmetatively unemployed. And, of course, now begins the real work on climate change, to ensure we all have universal access to clean air and water.”
Following the press conference, independent fact-checking organizations generally approved of Minister X–’s statements, with no red flags raised.
News has been met with jubilation across the country. Times reporters have been live-streaming interviews throughout the week, asking in what ways people’s lives have been changed by the Maslow Statute.
X– W– (she/her) of Taoyuan said, “our home was made housing-guaranteed really early actually, in 2035. I was skeptical at first, I thought, if we aren’t paying rent to our landlord anymore, why would she ever bother to come fix something if it was broken? But when I talked to my neighbor, they said landlords lose opportunities for a tax breaks if they get too many complaints from renters. Actually, our toilet did break, but it was after our landlord already sold our apartment to the government. I was really worried, I’d have to call a bunch of bureaucrats, we’d never have a working toilet again, but actually it turned out all we had to do was submit a ticket on this Ministry of Finance website, and they had a plumber come right away! And we didn’t even have to pay! The worker said don’t worry, he just submits an invoice once a week to the government, and they arrange payment themselves or from landlords that still own the properties. It’s all pretty organized!” X–’s plumber was likely using the InterPayment platform, an interop network of applications, websites, APIs, payment platforms, and government services coordinated by MODA and built almost entirely by volunteers, used by the various Maslow Statute initiative departments to organize subsidies. “Actually, I didn’t believe it was possible that my wife and I could just quit our jobs and stop paying rent. But my wife really wanted to try it, she’d always wanted to do a long Huandao on bicycle, so we just did it! We both quit, and as soon as we let our companies know, we got a letter from the local Ministry of Finance housing department informing us our rent had been set to 0 until we decided to work again. We asked our friend to check in on our apartment, packed our backpacks, and spent the next two months on Huandao! We intended to just do one month, but when our friend told us that we got a letter from the government informing us that rent was still 0 for the next month, we decided to take even longer. I realized I never really had seen Taiwan, I had always been so worried about making sure to save as much money as possible, I never could enjoy vacation, I would feel guilty and worried I wasn’t working enough, that I might lose my job. I feel like I fell in love with nature, and everyone we met was so friendly. When we finally got home, we felt like completely different people, but it was so nice to relax at home again. We wondered if we’d ever work again, but actually after just a week at home we got really bored, and what’s really surprising is that both of our jobs took us right back when we asked! I guess now that anybody can choose to not work, people are really happy when workers come back.”
H– L— (he/him) of Taipei said, “I’m in venture capital, and I couldn’t have been more skeptical of all this universal whatever stuff. In fact I’m still skeptical, I’m convinced it’s going to crash and burn. Why would people work if they don’t have to? And who’s going to pay for all this free housing? Do you know how much my firm has invested in land? Can the government really afford to buy up whatever properties people choose to sell?” In fact, the universal housing-purchase program is only available for residential properties that the government, with independent auditors, determines is compatible with Universal Housing goals. “I thought, at best, companies like mine are just going to be taxed into oblivion. So far, it’s been ok, a lot of the smaller businesses we invest in have been doing really well, with incredibly high revenues. Some of our competition got cut out at the knees, they were too slow to respond to all this. We were smart about it, pivoted into tourist industry stuff, restaurants, arcades, consumer goods, whatever we could think of that people with lots of spare time would do or buy. You know the craziest thing has been what our companies have to do to maintain staff. The perks, the pay! Margins are slimming, but because we positioned ourselves well in terms of what people like to spend money on these days, I think we’ll do ok. I admit that it has been exciting, you know from a marketing angle, figuring out how to convince people to spend money on what our businesses are selling. It’s like everyone’s relationship with cash has completely changed. We did so many focus groups, it felt like for a while all I did was focus groups, all day, but the things people had to say, about what they feel about their money, their investments, their retirement funds, it’s completely changing the game. Before, everyone had to tuck it all away, rainy day savings, but now they’re a lot more willing to spend. Skeptical as I am about all the universal housing, electricity, food, whatever stuff, at the end of the day that’s what’s most exciting for someone like me, that cash flow. It’s flowing!!”
Of course, not everyone was happy about the accomplishment. I– M– (they/them) of Taipei, said, “I’m glad everyone can get healthcare now, that homeless people have somewhere to sleep, obviously that’s wonderful. You would have to be pretty cruel to oppose it. What I’ve been saying since the very start, is this is just gonna lead to so much waste! I thought that’s what all these UHR types cared about right, environment protection or whatever? Yet they’re going to let people eat as much as they want, use as much air conditioning? Take three hour long hot showers?” When asked if they take three hour long hot showers, I– M– said, “of course not, because I have personal responsibility. Maybe I should though, since everyone else gets to! Apparently it doesn’t matter anymore.” I– M–’s point has been raised often in discussions related to the Maslow Statute, with the government deciding to test implement various programs and study available data. Typically, usage of various resources such as power and water did initially go up, yet as various groups attempted to determine whether this was due to wastage or otherwise, resource usage reverted to the mean, apparently rendering the question moot. Today, regional usage of resources such as power, water, gas, and network availability can be studied by anyone, with most researchers concluding that usage remains sustainable. Causes are at least partially attributed to an increase in environmentalist efforts, activism, and education, following the freeing up of people’s time to focus on volunteering for civic or passion projects. This journal has compiled relevant discussions, visible at https://times.—/archives/maslow/debates
Many commented on improved labor conditions, such as A– Y– (he/him), a supply chain manager in Taizhong, who said “I never really looked too much into the Universal Food stuff, water, whatever, I never minded paying my bills and rent, the biggest change for me has been how much more freedom I have at work. Remember make up workdays? Where you get Friday off for a holiday, but then have to come in Sunday? I haven’t had one of those in four years. Before, I used to get a very small raise, every few years. Now I get a raise ever year at least, and it’s always big. My boss knows now I can just leave whenever I want, now that I don’t have to worry about my kid’s school or our mortgage. Or, I guess even our food! Before this whole thing I was so humiliated at work, I felt like I had no power, like I had to just shut up and do what my boss said. Now I feel like I have respect, I actually can share my ideas. I bet my boss wishes he had treated me like that before! A few months ago I suggested we reorganize the warehouse, now we can store sixteen more containers, that’s a huge increase in our storage fee income! I’d never make a suggestion like that, mostly because nobody would ever listen to me, but also because why should I bother? I’ll make the same money either way, I’ll still have to stay late every night for no reason. But now my bosses know they have to, what’s the word, incentivize us, actually reward us, let us succeed when the company succeeds, or we’ll just quit. It’s reasons like that that I don’t think I’ll ever just quit, I finally feel like I actually enjoy my work, I don’t even mind that it’s not the kind of job I can always do from home like my wife can, the train is so much faster now anyway. I feel involved, like a part of the company, like I can help us be successful, and if I do, I actually benefit as well.”
L– X–, a single mother in Taizhong, said “I didn’t have a life, I was a prisoner. I accepted this, what could I do? I was stuck in a job I didn’t care about at all, it was so mundane and boring, but I couldn’t quit, my son was growing so fast, every few months he needed new clothes, and I had to pay so much so we could live in an expensive neighborhood near the school I wanted him to go to. Not to mention, do you have any idea how much a young boy eats, when he does sports? So I would spend all day, every day, weekends too sometimes, just working at this mind numbing advertising job, clicking around in spreadsheets, ruining my back sitting at a computer all day. At the time, I felt guilty for being so bored and sad, I mean I had air conditioning, didn’t I? My son and I had clothes, food. At least I had a job! There was this pressure at work to feel that way, like, how dare you question it, you know there’s homeless people right? At least you’re not them! But as the Maslow Statute stuff happened, the pressure kept coming off, bit by bit, I had no idea how much pressure there was until it started lifting. Suddenly my son isn’t as hungry when he comes home anymore, at school he was able to have a big meal, or, suddenly he’s wearing all this weird clothes, he doesn’t want me to buy him new clothes because he and his friends print off ‘open source threads,’ whatever that means, and all they need to ‘print clothes’ is some trash water bottles and cigarette butts they clean and feed into a printer? I don’t understand it all, but the point is, little things, bit by bit, and suddenly things at work are more relaxed, my coworkers more fun, like an enormous weight is being pulled off us all. I realized one night, when I was doing our finances, that I had managed to save plenty of money, and the next day they announced zero fee options for all national universities, and that settled it for me, I wanted to find a new job, find a new thing I could do. So I told my boss I wanted to go back to school, and they actually offered to give me the same pay even if I took half days twice a week to attend class! They just didn’t want me to quit! I had no idea things had changed that much. Long story short, I was able to go back to school, I took some classes on print and web design, and had time to start building a portfolio. I actually was showing off some of my designs to my coworkers, and my boss noticed, and offered me a raise and a position on the design team. They didn’t say it, but I could see it in their eyes, I feel like they were desperate for me not to leave the company and find a new job! I’m still working there now, and now my son is in university, studying some kind of new stuff around, uh, distributed, uh, communication, ledger,” (she trails off and laughs), “sorry, I honestly don’t understand it at all, I’m just happy that we have time now, I don’t have to stay at work as late and I still take half days sometimes even though I don’t have classes anymore, and we have more money to do fun things. Before, I saved every cent, I was always afraid he’d get hurt doing sports and bankrupt us with medical bills or something, but that’s all just gone now. All that worry, just gone.”
This news organization is certified by the English Mandarin Zero Politics Modstream (EMZPM), a coalition fact check cooperative of several universities and independent researchers in Taiwan, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. You can ensure the integrity of the article and the information within by viewing it directly on their website, along with their commentary, on the internet at https://emzpm.org or on IPFS at ipfs://{{address}}/news/taiwan/n.html
A fact-check proposition to include relevant portions of the “Reader’s Guide to Maslow’s Foundations” to facilitate this article’s clarity has been approved after a majority vote by EMZPM, and as such it has been included below. The full version of the “Reader’s Guide” can be found at https://data.gov/tw/xyz/readers-guide.html or ipfs://{{address}}/publications/readersguide.html
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Section 1: Air
Universal access to clean air was considered a partially-achieved objective in Taiwan when the Maslow Statute was passed, but remains included to ensure air quality doesn’t slip to levels seen in many other industrialized nations around the world, where situations had gotten so bad that the most wealthy would form closed-circuit air zones that combined various high-value hotels, apartments, and restaurants, effectively sealing themselves off from the air pollution from which the majority of those nations’ populations suffered.
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Section 3: Water
Water is the second highest priority to immediately sustain human life, after shelter. Access to clean, drinkable water must be unrestricted. If water costs money, it puts price pressure on a person to consider a lower quality of health so as to allocate money to other things, such as rent for shelter or cash to buy food. Furthermore, clean water is necessary to maintain good hygiene, which is critical for physical and psychological health, as well as for social well-being, as there are implicit hygiene requirements in almost all societies. The implemented water solution therefore provides for unrestricted access to water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, washing, and other residential and personal needs. Essentially for citizens this means that the water in their tap must always be drinkable and never cost money to use.
Some raised concerns about excessive water usage, especially of hot water, which alongside universal access to Shelter means all residential power needs are also fully subsidized and thus could lead to high wastage. The decision was made to implement universal access to water in neighborhood stages, and the statistics show that water usage experienced a slight increase, but then settled back to unsubsidized levels. Of course, it remains a crime in the form of fraud to use residential access water for commercial purposes, though in the 7 years since universal water access was achieved, there have been very few such cases.
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Section 5: Clothing
Clothing can be considered a form of shelter in many ways, and in almost all environments, proper clothing is essential to good physical health. Even in a comfortable and warm city, one must wear good shoes to prevent injuries to one’s feet. For that reason, universal access to clothing must be guaranteed.
Any may access universally guaranteed clothing options at one of the many clothing recycling centers throughout the country, all of which have extensive universal transportation options available. For extremely rural areas, the MODA has coordinated with volunteers to build a coordination data platform that allows for clothing requests to be made for timely delivery to your region, pulling from the national pool of available clothes.
But where are these clothes coming from? Are they any good? Are they fashionable? Of course, for the most part, the latest fashion is likely only accessible to those willing to trade hard earned cash from their augmentative employment jobs. However, a key goal of the establishment of the Clothing section of Maslow’s Foundations was normal and comfortable clothing that didn’t set wearers apart as social pariahs. Therefore, the government has worked, again with MODA coordinated volunteers, in the establishment of public-domain clothing designs, as well as the volunteer efforts and equipment needed to produce these clothing goods. Combined with donations and coordination with municipal waste operations, extensive re-use and recycling operations have been implemented to ensure that good, clean, and durable clothing remains available to those who need it, rather than go to waste in a dump.
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Section 6: Reproduction
Universal access to reproductive control measures was almost nearly achieved in Taiwan well before the passing of the Maslow Statute, owing to universal healthcare that included universal access to contraceptives and pregnancy control options. Obstacles that remained were mostly regarding transportation and delivery, ensuring everyone, be they in a city or a rural township, have unrestricted access to the means they and their doctors determined best to control their body’s reproductive functions.
Those interested can go to a nearby hospital or private clinic to ask about contraceptive and reproductive control options. All medical facilities in Taiwan should now be fully stocked with the necessary medication, contraceptives, and informational materials necessary for reproductive bodily autonomy, and there are government subsidy measures in place for certain facilities and equipment that fall outside the socialized programs.
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Section 7: Health
Universal healthcare was achieved prior to the passing of the Maslow Statute for all forms of non-elective medical care, treatment, surgeries, and medications. As part of the Statute, government and independent audits have been and will be regularly performed to ensure medically sound definitions for “elective” medicine (such as ensuring that normally elective plastic surgeries are available when there’s great physical or psychological need), as well as to update programs as new technologies and techniques are invented.
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Section 9: Information
Universal access to information was already a government objective as far back as President Tsai’s administration, spearheaded by the founder of MODA, Audrey Tang. Universal access to Information was considered 100% achieved 5 years ago, when all residential and personal data connections were brought down to unrestricted 0-cost through a massive effort of infrastructure nationalization, infrastructure investment, and telecom subsidy. Today, the primary mechanism for the Foundational guarantee to Information is through the National Government’s WEBWORK plan, which seeded wifi and cellular access towers throughout the nation, achieving 80% population coverage in 2038.
Those interested in using the WEBWORK network need merely to configure their mobile devices to use the 5G WEBWORK network, or connect to a WEBWORK wifi SSID. For security reasons, it’s highly recommended to physically come to any government building in your area to pick up a WEBWORK wifi certificate, which will all but guarantee that your device is connected to a genuine WEBWORK wifi SSID. Further security information is available for free at any government office, or, at https://moda.gov.tw/webwork , or, at ipfs://{address}/webwork.html
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