Humanitarianism

Humanitarianism is a moral of kindness, benevolence, and sympathy extended to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common theme in its evolution. No distinction is to be made on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, race, caste, age, religion, ability, or nationality.

Social reform

The historian G. M. Trevelyan viewed humanitarianism as the product of rationalism upon Puritanism. However, in many areas of reform, Christians and rationalists worked together: in the case of slavery, William Wilberforce and the Buxtons, but also Jeremy Bentham and Condorcet; in the case of working conditions, evangelicals such as Lord Shaftesbury, but also Robert Owen and Edwin Chadwick; in the case of punishments, Cesare Beccaria and Samuel Romilly; in the case of the mentally ill, Shaftesbury and Pinel; and in the case of the treatment of animals, Bentham enlisted the aid of Wilberforce. The idea that mankind could be improved by deliberate social change distinct from the conferring of charity was relatively new.

Economic humanitarianism (Raëlianism)

Economic Humanitarianism is a collection of economic ideas which, according to its creator Claude Vorilhon, is designed to complement Geniocracy.

Relation with capitalism

Economic humanitarianism accepts the capitalist notion that through competition and technological innovation, some companies may install automation in an attempt to reduce costs, which replaces jobs and reduces the aggregate consumer base. As long as there are industries which have not reached maturity, the employment will return to a natural level, as will the consumer base. In the framework of Economic Humanitarianism, capitalism is considered to be the best way for industries to mature in the long run.

But in place, once maturity of all industries is close at hand, automation is seen to eliminate jobs at a rate faster than new industries can introduce. If the economic system is not reformed around this time, this not only reduces aggregate consumer base, but also the total consumer base, resulting in poverty despite normal levels of output. Reflecting on history, the author of Economic Humanitarianism, Claude Vorilhon, suggested that all employees whose labor was replaced by automation should have received supplemental income and that all individuals should receive minimal existence revenue (their fair share of what automation has to offer). Economic humanitarianism supports the implementation of a basic income.