According to Foundation Law, every citizen is entitled to a Right to Life Support, which includes a breathable atmosphere, housing, access to electricity, water and canteen service. The counterpart of this right is the obligation to perform free civic service. In the territory of the Foundation, work-related activities are divided into two categories: unpaid civic work, intended to produce basic goods and services linked to survival on Mars, and private activity intended to generate the income necessary to buy goods and services. The separation between basic and leisure activities is an important object of democratic debate. Iit varies between districts, however it is systematically observed that civic service includes the following goods and services: maintenance of the atmosphere, management of the water, energy and waste, ecosystem maintenance, health and education - in particular by companionship during civic service. While some neighborhoods refuse to do so, the majority of them also include the production of minimal free social goods for food, clothing, housing and connection - providing a minimal safety net that is unattractive but sufficient in the event of eventual hardships.
The rest of the economy is the object of private activities, the supervision of which remains minimal and generally registered in the form of a business. The difficulty and complexity of survival in the non-forgiving environment of Mars, as well as the long work of making the ecosystem (ecopoiesis), fosters an empathetic state of mind and favors complex thinking, allowing this system of dual types of work to keep a balance - which does not prevent heated debates on the location of the tipping point.
The vital systems of Martian cities require consistent and permanent maintenance. In practice, the settlement of Mars requires very large human resources and manpower is more often scarce than the reverse.
As a result, children are mobilized very young on ecosystem maintenance activities that are most suitable for them. In this logic of early empowerment of the Martian citizen, the age of majority is fixed at 15 years.
The permanent labor shortage for teleworking, piloting drones and artificial intelligence development pushes the martians to find solutions at home. Foundation and the City States implement an active policy intended to encourage a high birth rate, with in particular the following measures, decided according to the votes of the different districts: free crèches and shared childcare, home support by retirees and family, free education, priority for housing and medicine,or tax reductions. Indentured immigration for a service of two, four or six years, paid by companies is also common. Some telepresence is possible from Earth, but in very limited circumstances due to transmission delays. Automation has increased productivity to unheard heights and made the Martian GDP per individual the highest in the solar system.
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