The basic necessities of life need to be produced. The current mode of production is capitalistic, a system which requires that people pay cash for those products. — jkg20
Capitalism relies heavily on the sales of necessities, so making necessities free could damage the economy. — GreenPhilosophy
I certainly don't think a capitalist economy could function by giving away the necessities and only selling the "luxury" goods - which seems to be what you are proposing. The production and sale of necessities is the foundation of the capitalist system, the production and sale of luxury goods is parasitic upon it. Take away that foundation and the whole edifice collapses. — jkg20
Not only is it expensive to be poor, but because the poor have no money in the bank, every small disaster (flat tire, need new shoes, Fortune Magazine sub expired) every minor problem gets magnified. For want of a tire, the car can't run, one can't get to work... and so on. — Bitter Crank
I think the issue is that whilst society is mired in capitalism, seeing fit to disperse the surplus freely is not a coherent option. Under capitalism the surplus is the source of profit. Disperse the surplus freely: no profit. No profit: no capitalism.True, but capitalist systems regularly produce a surplus from which the poorest can be taken care of, if the society sees fit to provide such care.
Orwell was an exceptional writer and human being. Another work in the same spirit by another writer (although this time fictional) is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell.↪NKBJ
Have you read George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier or Down and Out in Paris and London? Both are about Orwell's experience of British and French poverty in the 1930s. Excellent.
or should it be people’s right to receive [from society] what they need to survive — GreenPhilosophy
our survival has never been guaranteed by nature or anyone/anything else.
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