Merit Points: A Fairer System of Acknowledgment

In the previous chapter, we explored how “employment” can be reimagined to include everything from parenting and volunteering to research and environmental stewardship. The question now is: How do we measure and reward these contributions in a way that feels fair, transparent, and resistant to manipulation? That’s where merit points come in.

The idea behind merit points is simple: whenever someone engages in activities that benefit society—teaching, caregiving, community service, creative work—they receive a quantifiable form of acknowledgment. Unlike a typical salary system, merit points:

• Acknowledge More Than Just Profit: They’re not tied solely to revenue generation or corporate metrics.
• Ensure Essential Activities Don’t Go Unrewarded: Caregiving, for example, is vital but often doesn’t show up in GDP figures.
• Encourage Personal Alignment: People can follow their passions (e.g., teaching) knowing they’ll be recognized, even if the salary is traditionally low.

The core principle is: if you help uphold fundamental human rights or contribute to the common good, you earn points.

One straightforward measure is time spent on recognized tasks—such as volunteering at a community clinic or offering tutoring sessions. The more hours you commit, the more merit points you accrue.

Not every activity has the same societal impact. For instance, a teacher ensuring a classroom of students gets a quality education might rank higher than a street musician simply entertaining passersby (though both add cultural value).

• High-Impact Roles: Doctors, nurses, environmentalists, teachers, and other roles tied closely to fundamental rights could have a higher multiplier for each hour worked.
• Creative & Cultural Roles: Art, music, literature, and performance also enrich a society but might earn points at a slightly different rate.
• Open-Ended Possibilities: Over time, new roles could be added or updated as societal needs shift (e.g., mental health coaching, digital literacy training).

A public or semi-public committee could determine the weighting factors, possibly with community input or specialized expert panels. This ensures no single person or small group unilaterally decides which roles deserve higher or lower multipliers.

To prevent individuals from gaming the system (e.g., falsely claiming hours or exaggerating roles), you can institute:

• Peer Verification: Colleagues or recipients of the service (like students, patients, or volunteers) provide feedback or “sign off” on the claimed hours.
• Community Committees: Local groups or digital-ledger-based boards can do spot checks, ensuring the hours logged match reality.
• Reputation Scores: Over time, participants build a reputation tied to honest reporting. Consistent false claims could lead to penalties or restricted privileges.

Some tasks might be logged automatically—for instance, the number of patients treated by a healthcare worker, or the hours spent in a recognized online teaching platform. Smart devices (including YADs) can help capture data like location, timestamps, or activity logs, which can be hashed onto the blockchain for tamper-resistant records.

As discussed previously, certain perks shouldn’t scale endlessly. For example, if you’re parenting multiple children, you might receive a one-time allocation of points for the responsibility of parenting, but not triple or quadruple for additional kids. The same principle can apply to other roles to keep the system equitable and discourage exploitation.

Remember that fundamental rights—food, water, shelter, healthcare, basic communication, and mobility—are guaranteed to everyone, regardless of merit points. However, having more points can grant access to:

• Priority Queues: Faster access to elective healthcare, housing upgrades, or advanced education programs.
• Choice & Upgrades: Access to “luxury” foods, better dormitories, or premium travel services.
• Extra Freedoms: Extended usage of shared resources like communal vehicles, creative studios, or advanced lab equipment.

• Time-Limited Tiers: Some perks might last only for a year or six months, ensuring people continue contributing to maintain them.
• One-Time Grants: Others might be single-issue benefits (e.g., a one-off scholarship, discounted mortgage, or specialized training course).

1. Criminals & Severe Offenders: As mentioned, they shouldn’t lose essential rights (like food or healthcare) but can face restrictions on mobility, communication, or certain freedoms—especially if they pose a risk to society.
2. Temporary Inactivity: People who fall sick, care for an ailing family member, or face mental health challenges shouldn’t be penalized too harshly. A well-structured system would offer a grace period or alternative ways to maintain a baseline of points.
3. Unquantifiable Contributions: Some forms of creative or emotional labor are hard to measure. The system should allow for community-based validation or flexible scoring.
4. Inequality in Weights: A teacher might wonder why they get fewer points per hour than a doctor. Transparent governance and regular adjustments can reduce perceived unfairness.

Consider someone who’s torn between teaching and software development. Under a merit points framework:

• Software Developer: They might earn a salary if it’s a standard market-driven job. Merit points could be lower if the role doesn’t directly uphold fundamental rights (unless the dev is working on crucial infrastructure or educational software).
• Teacher: Though the base salary might be lower in a traditional sense, the teacher accumulates significant merit points daily—reflecting their societal impact. Over time, these points might grant the teacher priority housing, better travel perks, or advanced training opportunities.
• Outcome: The teacher can follow their passion without sacrificing basic living standards. The society, in turn, benefits from a more motivated, high-quality educator.

In an earlier chapter, we discussed a baseline of 35 hours per week for those who are able-bodied and able-minded. Merit points fit naturally into this framework by tracking those hours. People can set goals—like 35 hours of recognized tasks weekly—while still having time for self-care, family, and leisure.

Start with small-scale pilots—one neighborhood, one school system, or one local healthcare network—to see how merit points are claimed, audited, and redeemed.

In these pilots, local committees and online platforms can gather feedback, fine-tune weighting factors, and identify loopholes. Over time, successful practices can be scaled up.

As the system matures, more data can be hashed onto a quantum-secure, privacy-focused blockchain, ensuring tamper-proof records while guarding personal details. Proof of Personhood protocols then confirm each participant is a unique human, preventing “Sybil attacks” or multiple-ID exploits.

• Merit Points Expand the Concept of “Reward” beyond money, allowing us to value diverse contributions that sustain society.
• Weighted Roles address different impact levels, but require continuous community oversight to stay fair and adaptive.
• Fundamental Rights Remain Universal, ensuring no one is deprived of life’s essentials while still incentivizing beneficial activities.
• Anti-Abuse Measures like peer review, local committees, and blockchain audits help maintain trust and integrity in the system.
• Practical Implementation can begin on a small scale, refining the model through feedback before broad, global adoption.

By adopting a merit points system, we take a big step toward aligning personal passions with societal needs—without forcing people to choose between moral fulfillment and financial survival. It isn’t a perfect silver bullet, but with thoughtful checks and balances, it can significantly reduce inequities, reward high-impact roles, and empower individuals to pursue what they truly love, all within a framework that prioritizes collective well-being.

Next Up: In the following chapters, we’ll see how technological tools (like a local-first blockchain) and governance structures (community committees, audits, proof-of-personhood) can bring merit points to life in a way that’s secure, democratic, and centered on human dignity.