Foundational Philosophy — Lantern
Effective Date: 2026-01-09
Status: Constitutional Document (requires 75% employee vote to amend)
Purpose
This document establishes the philosophical foundation that guides all governance, policies, and decisions at Lantern. These principles are the moral bedrock upon which the company is built.
Core Belief: Human Dignity & Basic Rights
Lantern exists in service of human flourishing.
We believe that every person—regardless of background, circumstance, or role—deserves fundamental human dignity. This belief informs how we treat employees, users, partners, and communities.
The Four Pillars (Bare Minimum Human Rights)
These four pillars represent the absolute minimum every human being deserves. All Lantern policies must reflect and support these rights.
Pillar 1: Safe Place to Live 🏠
Everyone has the right to a safe, stable place to live.
What this means:
- Shelter is not a luxury—it's a human right
- "Safe" means physically secure, free from violence or threat, and with basic utilities
- "Stable" means not at constant risk of eviction or displacement
How Lantern's policies reflect this:
- Living wage minimum (75,000/year): Ensures employees can afford safe housing in their location
- No geographic wage discrimination: Remote employees earn the same regardless of local cost of living (prevents forcing employees to live in cheaper, potentially less safe areas)
- Housing stipend consideration: Company may provide housing assistance if needed to ensure all employees have safe housing
- Remote work flexibility: Employees can choose to live where they feel safest and most stable
Why this matters:
- No one can thrive at work if they fear losing their home
- Housing insecurity creates chronic stress that affects health, productivity, and well-being
- Stable housing is the foundation for all other aspects of human flourishing
Pillar 2: Healthcare 🏥
Everyone has the right to FREE healthcare—physical, mental, and preventative.
What this means:
- Healthcare is not a privilege—it's a human right
- "Healthcare" includes physical health, mental health, dental, vision, and preventative care
- Access to care should not depend on employment status or ability to pay
- FREE means zero cost to employees—no premiums, no deductibles, no copays
How Lantern's policies reflect this:
- 100% FREE health insurance: Employee + family premiums, deductibles, and copays fully covered by company (HMO and PPO options)
- Mental health support: 2,000/year wellness stipend + FREE therapy app access + unlimited mental health days
- Dental and vision included: Comprehensive coverage from Day 1 at zero cost to employees
- No waiting period: Coverage starts immediately upon employment
- Sick leave unlimited: Employees never penalized for being sick
- Healthcare continuation: If employee leaves, company pays COBRA or transition coverage for 6 months minimum
- Emergency medical expenses: Company covers any out-of-pocket costs not covered by insurance
Why this matters:
- Health is the foundation of everything—without it, nothing else is possible
- Mental health is health; separating them is arbitrary and harmful
- Preventative care saves lives and reduces long-term suffering
- No one should choose between medical care and financial stability
Pillar 3: Education 📚
Everyone has the right to FREE education—formal, informal, and lifelong.
What this means:
- Education is not a commodity—it's a human right
- "Education" includes formal schooling, vocational training, self-directed learning, and skill development
- Learning should be accessible throughout life, not just in childhood
- FREE means zero cost to employees—company pays for all learning opportunities
How Lantern's policies reflect this:
- FREE professional development (5,000/year): Company pays for all courses, conferences, certifications, books, workshops
- Learning time (80 hours/year): Paid time for learning, separate from work hours
- Internal mentorship program: Employees teach and learn from each other at no cost
- No approval needed under 500: Employees control their learning paths with FREE budget
- FREE lunch & learn sessions: Company-sponsored learning community with catered meals
- Sabbatical (12 weeks every 5 years): With 5,000 FREE bonus for education/travel
- Conference attendance: One fully FREE paid conference per year (registration, travel, lodging, meals)
- Degree programs: Company pays tuition for job-related degree programs (with service agreement)
Why this matters:
- Learning is what makes us human—curiosity and growth are fundamental needs
- Education creates opportunity and agency
- Skills become obsolete quickly; lifelong learning is essential for security
- Educated employees make better decisions for themselves and the company
Pillar 4: Food 🍽️
Everyone has the right to sufficient, nutritious food.
What this means:
- Food is not a luxury—it's a human right
- "Sufficient" means enough calories and nutrients to sustain health
- "Nutritious" means quality food that nourishes, not just fills
How Lantern's policies reflect this:
- Living wage (75,000/year): Ensures employees can afford nutritious food without financial stress
- No food insecurity: If any employee experiences food insecurity, company provides immediate assistance (emergency funds, food delivery, grocery stipends)
- Meal support during crunch (if needed): If employees ever work extended hours (rare), company provides meals
- Company events include food: Retreats, meetings, and gatherings always include quality meals
- Food as celebration, not deprivation: We reject hustle culture that glorifies skipping meals or "grinding"
Why this matters:
- Hunger impairs cognition, mood, and physical health
- Food insecurity creates chronic stress and shame
- No one should work while hungry or worry about their next meal
- Eating is a basic human need and should be treated with dignity
How These Pillars Guide All Policies
Policy Alignment Test
Before implementing any policy, ask:
- Housing: Does this policy help or hinder employees' ability to secure safe housing?
- Healthcare: Does this policy support or undermine employees' health and well-being?
- Education: Does this policy enable or restrict employees' ability to learn and grow?
- Food: Does this policy ensure or threaten employees' access to nutritious food?
If any answer is negative, the policy must be revised or rejected.
Examples of Alignment
Living wage (75,000/year):
- ✅ Housing: Can afford rent/mortgage in most locations
- ✅ Healthcare: Can afford copays, medications, and care beyond insurance
- ✅ Education: Can afford books, courses, and learning without financial stress
- ✅ Food: Can afford nutritious groceries without choosing between food and other needs
Unlimited PTO (minimum 4 weeks required):
- ✅ Housing: Time off allows employees to handle housing issues (repairs, moving, finding better housing)
- ✅ Healthcare: Time off for medical appointments, recovery, mental health breaks
- ✅ Education: Time off for learning, courses, personal development
- ✅ Food: Time off to rest, cook nutritious meals, not resort to fast food due to exhaustion
No layoffs without shared sacrifice:
- ✅ Housing: Protects employees from sudden loss of income and housing instability
- ✅ Healthcare: Maintains health insurance coverage during financial difficulty
- ✅ Education: Allows continued learning rather than scrambling for survival
- ✅ Food: Ensures income continues to support basic needs
4-day work week (32 hours):
- ✅ Housing: More time to maintain home, search for better housing, handle repairs
- ✅ Healthcare: More time for appointments, exercise, sleep, mental health
- ✅ Education: More time for learning outside work
- ✅ Food: More time to cook nutritious meals, grocery shop, enjoy food
Examples of Misalignment (What We DON'T Do)
Unpaid overtime or crunch culture:
- ❌ Housing: Overwork leaves no time to maintain home or search for better housing
- ❌ Healthcare: Overwork causes burnout, stress, and physical/mental health deterioration
- ❌ Education: No time for learning when working excessive hours
- ❌ Food: Overwork leads to skipping meals or eating unhealthy fast food
Below-market wages:
- ❌ Housing: Cannot afford safe housing; risk of homelessness or unsafe conditions
- ❌ Healthcare: Must choose between medical care and other expenses
- ❌ Education: Cannot afford learning opportunities
- ❌ Food: Food insecurity or choosing cheapest (often unhealthiest) options
No health insurance or high-deductible plans:
- ❌ Healthcare: Employees avoid necessary care due to cost
- ❌ Housing: Medical debt can lead to housing instability
- ❌ Education: Medical expenses consume learning budget
- ❌ Food: Medical costs force choices between care and food
Beyond the Bare Minimum
The Four Pillars are the bare minimum. Lantern strives to go beyond minimum standards.
What's next beyond the pillars:
- Community & Connection: Humans need belonging and social connection (Wave feature, company retreats, collaborative culture)
- Purpose & Meaning: Work should be meaningful, not just a paycheck (mission-driven, user-serving product)
- Autonomy & Agency: Employees should control their work and lives (democratic governance, flexible schedules, remote work)
- Joy & Fulfillment: Life should include joy, not just survival (sabbaticals, unlimited PTO, work-life balance)
Philosophical Influences
While this document is practical (not academic), these principles draw from:
- Human rights frameworks: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25: right to adequate standard of living)
- Cooperative principles: ICA Cooperative Principles (concern for community, democratic member control)
- Care ethics: Recognition that all humans are interdependent and deserve care
- Capability approach (Sen, Nussbaum): Focus on what people can do and be, not just income
- Solidarity economics: Economy should serve human needs, not the reverse
We don't claim philosophical originality—these are universal human values, applied to business.
Integration with Other Governance Documents
Immutable Rights (IMMUTABLE_RIGHTS.md)
The Four Pillars inform which rights are immutable:
- Living wage minimum: Supports all four pillars (cannot be removed)
- Equal profit sharing: Ensures no employee lacks basic needs while others accumulate excess
- No layoffs without sacrifice: Protects employees from sudden loss of income that threatens all four pillars
- Financial transparency: Employees can verify company supports these principles
Employee Rights Charter (EMPLOYEE_RIGHTS_CHARTER.md)
The Four Pillars are reflected in specific benefits:
- Housing: Living wage, no geographic discrimination, remote flexibility
- Healthcare: 100% insurance coverage, unlimited sick leave, mental health support
- Education: 5,000/year learning budget, 80 hours learning time, sabbaticals
- Food: Living wage sufficient for nutritious food
Anti-Greed Safeguards (ANTI_GREED_SAFEGUARDS.md)
The Four Pillars prevent policies that would violate basic human needs:
- No layoffs: Protects access to all four pillars
- Salary cap (3×): Prevents executive enrichment while any employee struggles with basic needs
- No unpaid overtime: Protects health and well-being
- Living wage guarantee: Explicitly ensures basic needs met
Accountability: How We Measure Alignment
Annual Four Pillars Audit
Every year, employees conduct a Four Pillars Audit to assess whether policies truly reflect these values.
Questions:
- Housing: Do all employees have safe, stable housing? Is anyone at risk of housing insecurity?
- Healthcare: Do all employees have access to needed care? Is anyone avoiding care due to cost or policy barriers?
- Education: Are employees able to pursue learning? Are learning budgets actually used?
- Food: Do all employees have access to sufficient, nutritious food? Is anyone experiencing food insecurity?
Process:
- Anonymous survey + optional open discussion
- If any employee reports unmet basic needs, company treats as emergency
- Immediate remediation: emergency funds, policy changes, or individual support
- Root cause analysis: Why did policy fail to protect employee?
Individual Support Protocol
If any employee experiences crisis affecting the Four Pillars:
- Immediate FREE assistance: Emergency funds available within 24 hours (no repayment required)
- No questions, no judgment: Assistance is a right, not charity
- Confidential: Only employee and designated support person know
- Systemic review: Company examines whether policy failed and how to prevent recurrence
Examples of FREE assistance:
- Employee faces eviction → Company provides FREE temporary housing (hotel, corporate housing, or rent coverage) + FREE housing deposit/first-last month rent
- Employee can't afford medication → Company covers cost immediately at zero cost to employee
- Employee needs urgent training for career transition → Company funds immediately with FREE tuition
- Employee experiencing food insecurity → Company provides FREE grocery delivery or prepaid food cards (no limit during crisis)
- Employee has family emergency requiring travel → Company provides FREE flights and accommodations
- Employee needs childcare during crisis → Company pays for FREE temporary childcare
Anti-Abuse Safeguards:
- Good faith presumption: All requests presumed legitimate unless clear evidence of fraud
- Confidential review: Only 2-person committee reviews requests (rotating quarterly to prevent favoritism)
- Patterns monitored: Repeated requests trigger supportive check-in (not punitive) to identify systemic issues
- Fraud consequences: Intentional fraud results in repayment requirement + disciplinary action (but financial hardship is never fraud)
- No stigma: Using assistance never affects performance reviews, promotions, or profit sharing
Why Philosophy Matters in Governance
Philosophy is not abstract—it's the foundation for every decision.
Without clear philosophical grounding:
- Policies become arbitrary or contradictory
- Decisions optimize for profit over people
- Mission drift occurs gradually and invisibly
- Values become slogans rather than commitments
With clear philosophical grounding:
- Every policy reflects core values
- Decisions have moral clarity
- Employees can hold company accountable
- Mission remains protected even under pressure
The Four Pillars are not aspirational—they are non-negotiable commitments embedded in all governance.
Reflection: Why These Four?
Why housing, healthcare, education, and food—not other rights?
These four are chosen because they are:
- Universal: Every human, everywhere, needs these
- Foundational: Without these, other rights become theoretical (can't exercise free speech if starving)
- Actionable: A company can directly ensure employees have these
- Measurable: We can verify whether employees have safe housing, healthcare access, learning opportunities, and sufficient food
Other important rights (e.g., freedom of expression, safety from violence, democratic participation) are also protected at Lantern, but the Four Pillars are the absolute minimum for human dignity.
Living Document
This philosophy evolves as we learn and grow, but the Four Pillars remain constant.
Can we add a fifth pillar? Yes, with 75% employee vote if there's consensus that another right is equally foundational.
Can we remove a pillar? No. The Four Pillars are immutable philosophical commitments.
Can we strengthen how we support the pillars? Always. The Four Pillars are the floor, not the ceiling.
Final Commitment
Every person who works at Lantern will have:
- A safe place to live
- Access to healthcare
- Opportunities to learn
- Sufficient food
This is not charity. This is justice.
This is not a benefit. This is a right.
This is not negotiable. This is foundational.
Related Documents
- Immutable Rights — Rights that cannot be removed (reflect Four Pillars)
- Employee Rights Charter — Specific policies implementing Four Pillars
- Anti-Greed Safeguards — Protections that preserve Four Pillars
- Governance & Ownership — Structure that embeds Four Pillars
Amendment Process
This document is constitutional with special protection for the Four Pillars:
- Four Pillars themselves: Immutable (cannot be removed or weakened)
- How we support the pillars: Can be strengthened with 75% vote
- Additional pillars: Can be added with 75% vote
- Philosophy section: Can be expanded with 75% vote
These pillars are our promise to every employee: Your basic human dignity is not negotiable. You will not struggle for survival while building this company.