Authoritative specification · Working Paper 3.0

The three-tier civic framework

The proposal is an omnibus structure. It treats debt relief, housing entry, immigration status, political disengagement, entitlement sustainability, and demographic decline as one design problem. People sort themselves. The state does not assign a political personality; it offers two completed bargains and one legalization track.

Design principles

Self-selection, not assignment.
Debt relief functions primarily as a lump-sum buyout intended to remove participants from long-term federal entitlement rolls.
Federal voting is a duty-bearing privilege of the Electorate, not a default attribute of every adult citizen.
A legitimate low-engagement track. Political fatigue is treated as a fact of civic life. Regular Citizen status is a complete status, not a penalty class.
Service as program labor, not private mandate. Electorate service is assignment to national programs. It is not a mandate on family formation.

Comparison at a glance

	Regular Citizen	New Citizen	Electorate
Who	Default for most current citizens who opt for the low-engagement track	Current non-criminal undocumented residents after screening	Voluntary high-engagement track
Federal voting	No federal voting rights; no voting duty	No federal voting rights during and after probation unless later admitted to Electorate	Exclusive federal voting rights; mandatory voting with $2,000 civil fine for unexcused absence
Taxes and service	No federal income tax up to $200,000; no draft	Must pay federal taxes until $100,000 contributed, or for ten years; English; no criminal history	Ordinary federal tax rules continue; national service including women
Entitlements	Not eligible for traditional Social Security, Medicare, or other federal entitlements	Same restricted structure; no benefits; no debt-relief package	Keeps existing federal entitlements as they currently exist
Supports	One-time debt-relief package (proposed: $100k student / $50k mortgage / $20k card). No federal welfare.	Legal status after screening; self-deporters first; later Electorate application not automatic	Service-adjacent housing, credentials, and career re-entry so service is not a hidden career penalty

The Regular Citizen buyout

Proposed package ceilings:

Up to $100,000 in federal student-loan relief
Up to $50,000 in mortgage relief
Up to $20,000 in credit-card or consumer-debt relief

Regular Citizens also face no federal income tax up to $200,000 and no federal welfare. The transfer is a buyout of future liabilities, not a new floor.

New Citizen rules

A path to citizenship after screening. No vote. No federal benefits. Must speak English. No criminal history. Federal taxes until $100,000 has been contributed, or for ten years. Priority for people who self-deported. After the contribution period, a later Electorate application is possible under additional criteria. Application is not automatic conversion.

Electorate rules

Federal voting is limited exclusively to verified Electorate members and fully integrates SAVE America Act-style documentary proof-of-citizenship for voter registration. National service is expanded to include women on equal terms and is discharged through national programs: childcare and family-support capacity, eldercare, education support, and related infrastructure. Version 3.0 withdraws earlier framing that treated women’s service as a campaign about private family decisions.

What this paper does and does not claim

The framework claims to be operable as a menu: three named tracks, a defined buyout, a defined legalization path, a defined voting roll, and service discharged through national programs. It claims that political fatigue is real enough to justify a lawful low-engagement status, that entitlement pressure is real enough to justify modeling an opt-out, and that legal status is economically different from unauthorized status.

It does not claim a scored fertility effect, a scored childcare-price effect from service staffing, a CBO-quality net-present-value result, or a measured take-up rate. Constitutional viability of a formal nonvoting citizenship class remains an open legal question.