[GA - PASSED] Repeal: "Minimum Standard of Living Act"

[Fregerson]

Repeal: “Minimum Standard of Living Act”
Category: Repeal | GA #344
Proposed by: Heidgaudr | Onsite Topic
Replacement: Right to Adequate Housing (by Tinhampton)​

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The General Assembly,

Believing that the health and welfare of member nations' citizens is of great importance;

Extolling the target resolution for attempting to assist people living in squalor;

Worried, however, that several flaws render the target resolution ineffectual at accomplishing its goal of improving the lives of member nations’ citizens;

Finds as follows:

1. Several terms are used throughout without definition and without obvious interpretation - such as "legitimate reason" in Section 4(c) and "partial minimum standard of living" in Section 5(c) - which both defangs the World Assembly's ability to enforce the mandates of target resolution and empowers bad actors to continue neglecting their citizens.
   
   
2. Section 3 states “that member states are permitted to facilitate the provision of a minimum standard of living through public or private sector initiatives” which grants members the right to promote anti-competitive state-sponsored monopolies for any services that would be included in facilitating the minimum standard of living for citizens.
   
   
3. Section 4 enshrines institutional discrimination by creating exemptions for several highly stigmatized groups of people, such as undocumented immigrants, criminals who have not made “a good faith attempt to make restitution”, and the unemployed who have not made “a good faith attempt to support themselves without government assistance … without a legitimate reason”, without providing any justification for why these groups should be excluded.
   
   
4. Section 5(a) allows member states to guarantee “only a partial minimum standard of living” in certain circumstances which can be the result of government mismanagement, such as economic crises or inadequate preparation for predictable national disasters, thus absolving member nations of responsibility for any actions they committed that may have caused the inability to provide a full minimum standard of living.

Dismayed that the target resolution fails at satisfying the goal it set out to accomplish, namely "eliminat[ing] extreme poverty in all states;

Hereby repeals General Assembly Resolution #344 "Minimum Standard of Living Act".

Note: Only votes from TNP WA nations and NPA personnel will be counted. If you do not meet these requirements, please add (non-WA) or something of that effect to your vote.

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Voting Instructions:

• Vote For if you want the Delegate to vote For the resolution.
• Vote Against if you want the Delegate to vote Against the resolution.
• Vote Abstain if you want the Delegate to abstain from voting on this resolution.
• Vote Present if you are personally abstaining from this vote.

Detailed opinions with your vote are appreciated and encouraged!

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For	Against	Abstain	Present
10	5	1	0

 

[Fregerson]

Overview
This proposal seeks to repeal “Minimum Standard of Living Act”, which requires member states to offer some minimum levels of access to food and water, clothing, housing, sanitation, utilities, and some transit subject to affordability rules in (5)(b). This repeal proposal also cites several perceived "flaws", such as linking the provision of services to "state monopolies", provisions for "undocumented immigrants", "criminals" and the "unemployed". It also criticized the resolution for making exceptions for economic crises or "predictable national disasters".

Recommendation
We are unconvinced by the premise of the repeal, which criticises potentially valid grounds for exemptions to the "minimum" standard of living. Firstly, the proposal attributes a country's failure to adequately prepare for the most "predictable" of events (eg. tropical storm during monsoon season) to "government mismanagement", which may not be correct in the case of less developed nations who do not have the economic means to fully mitigate the impacts of such events. We also disagree with the claim that GA#344 promotes "anti-competitive state-sponsored monopolies", believing that such monopolies may be essential in providing basic services in the country's context.

We believe that the current resolution only mandates a minimum requirement for all member states, and that nations with significant resources at their disposal have no reasons not to enhance the basic services provided to their citizens. It is also worth noting that the purported replacement has flaws on its own, and based on its current wording, we cannot bring ourselves to support that as a replacement of this proposal.

For the above reasons, the Ministry recommends a vote Against the General Assembly resolution at vote, Repeal "Minimum Standard of Living Act", in hopes that we will get a potentially more viable repeal & replacement for the future.

This IFV Recommendation was written in collaboration with our World Assembly Legislative League partners.

 

[Namwenia]

Abstain

 

[Kaschovia]

For

 

[nvxl]

For

 

[Fili]

Abstain

 

[Pallaith]

Supportive of this despite not being keen on the apparent replacement.

 

[Loh]

For

 

[Magecastle]

For.

 

[Kirxas]

For.

Although I'd recommend a review of "Right to Adequate Housing (by Tinhampton)" as I believe sections c.i and c.viii leave room for major loopholes.

 

[thenightfire]

For

 

[TheLandOfFunFunFun]

For

 

[Zash]

For

 

[Simone]

Against. I don't have a strong view on whether this is repealed, but I am broadly against the replacement and I'd rather not remove the existing resolution given the cascading effects.

To quote my forum comments from September on Tin's replacement (which remains true):

"(Right to adequate housing is) unaffordable IRL to all but a handful of economies - even the UK can't seriously really afford to guarantee this without a massive expansion of council housing.

That said, the UK has a more immediate problem with NIMBY planning laws but that's another issue for another day."

 

[Fregerson]

I tend to be receptive of the repeal; like a few others have pointed out it is a big fat no for me on the replacement. Present for now.

 

[Simone]

I tend to be receptive of the repeal; like a few others have pointed out it is a big fat no for me on the replacement. Present for now.

I will add one more comment - I re-read both the current draft and Tin's draft - I believe because Tin adds new welfare requirements under her proposal, it technically does not require that GA#344 to be repealed. (I am not GenSec so I am just guessing here).

 

[Transitional Authority]

Against

 

[Fregerson]

Changing my votes to against in consideration that the supposed "replacement", by its current wording, doesn't even require this proposal in repeal.

 

[Namwenia]

Changing vote from Abstain to Against

 

[Magecastle]

Changing my votes to against in consideration that the supposed "replacement", by its current wording, doesn't even require this proposal in repeal.

Is that not a better reason to disregard the replacement, if it can be proposed regardless of this repeal?

 

[Fregerson]

Is that not a better reason to disregard the replacement, if it can be proposed regardless of this repeal?

The more I thought about it, the more I also find the repeal arguments to be unconvincing. In particular, the clause about how the existing resolution gives exemption to issues about "government mismanagement" turned me off

 

[Vexilia]

After a lively debate in the Comrades' Assembly, we have a motion to vote Against.

 

[Wilkshire]

Against

 

[Simone]

The General Assembly resolution Repeal "Minimum Standard of Living Act" was passed 11,997 votes to 3,068.