Abstract

This paper develops a novel, ontologically grounded theory of value-generation, which traces capitalist performance logic back to a fundamental systemic blind spot. The starting point is the observation that work always exists, but value only arises where work becomes visible. The value threshold (T) functions as an epistemic reality filter that decides which forms of work are permitted to emerge as achievement, and which remain invisible. In this sense, value is not understood as the result of production, but as the appearance of reality. The analysis shows that submergent, invisible work (care, ecological regeneration, social cohesion, psychic regulation, cultural stabilisation) generates the majority of societal carrying capacity, yet does not transition into economic value-form. Poverty therefore does not arise from a lack of work, but from a lack of emergence. Capitalism is structurally based on the invisibilisation of world – value arises through exclusion. Only what crosses the value threshold becomes visible. The central contribution of this paper is the derivation of a post-market value order. For this, UBI (Universal Basic Income) is contrasted with an alternative model: UCI (Universal Care Income). While UBI is fed by submergent performance and thus rests upon exploitation, UCI makes invisible work emergent and shifts value ontology. UCI does not generate output, but future-carrying capacity – value as regenerative performance. The diversity marker is defined as the threshold below which systems structurally collapse. In this model, commons do not function as niche solutions, but as emergence machines of a UCI-supported real economy. The result is not a reform programme, but system architecture. An economy after T defines prosperity through complexity-preservation, not growth; income follows world, not wage. In this way an empirically testable research programme is proposed: pilot zones with UCI-distribution, emergence monitoring, diversity metrics, and entropy analysis. Value does not arise through work, but through appearance. This theory shows how invisibility is structurally produced — and how UCI dissolves that condition. This paper functions as an interface text within a larger operator-based research corpus. Core concepts are applied here, not re-derived. The underlying research operates in a non-linear, rhythmically recursive epistemic mode grounded in an autistic form of structural perception; the present text provides an interface translation for academic contexts.