Income
All people receive credits regardless of what position they hold in society. This will be sufficient to eat well and have recreational expenses. The further up someone is within the (work) structure of society the more credits they will receive. However, the difference between the highest and the lowest member of society will not be very large. They highest level members may receive something like 5 times the amount of a low level member.
This strongly contrasts modern day capitalism where there can be people with millions of times more money than others.
By spreading the wealth more evenly everyone can have an abundance.
Why not just make everyone receive the same amount?
Self interest is inbuilt into humans and there needs to be some incentive to rising up the ranks. At the same time, the higher up a person is the more prestigious they are and an argument could be made that this is sufficient, but it also makes sense to reward people for the stress and harder work required by more critical roles. The level of difference is knob that needs tuned to find the right ratio.
Do different professions receive a different base amount?
There would be some potential difference when the amount of training required for a certain role is factored in. However, generally society needs all kinds of professions to be filled. In DC a teacher typically makes a low salary, but teaching the next generation is a critical function of society. Overall there would be far less difference between professions.
What about those that choose not to work?
The goal will be to lower the barriers as much as possible to allow a person to work in their chosen profession, but you can’t force people to work if they don’t want to. Those that choose this will still get enough credits to feed themselves. It is not expected that many would do this because
- Not working is unprestigious and such people may feel embarrassed.
- There would not be sufficient credits to live a hedonistic lifestyle (eg. see movies all day).
- Humans tend to want to do some kind of work. Endless vacation is actually not very fulfilling for most people.
- Wanting to avoid work can come from psychological issues which should lessen under OS. See Happiness.
Can credits be earned from sources other than salary?
Not really. Selling second hand goods and gambling with friends are some examples. However, people cannot run businesses to accumulate disproportionate amounts of wealth.