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Do you want utopia, a classless, moneyless society? It's been an ideal
these many years, but perhaps
in your heart of hearts, you don't want it. You want dreams of
glory and, if you are lucky, glory itself. You fear dystopia, a
Brave New World where faceless leaders control robot-like populaces.
You want change, but do nothing to make change happen.
A few obvious points.
1. Our need for jobs
Capitalism needs jobs. It seems fair that everyone who wants work,
has the opportunity to work. This creates non-productive employments.
i.e. lawyers, accountants, salespeople, bankers and insurance
executives because we
don't care what people do as long as they do something. They create toxic
substances that pollute the environment or we put the stuff they make
down the sewer, as with armaments. Jobs also contribute to individual
senses of self. Some employments are classier than others.
Utopia takes the opposite approach. It seeks to maintain or improve
the community living standard with as few jobs as possible.
We make the best with as
long a useful life as we can manage. Rather than seek full employment, utopias seek
minimum employment. If there are fewer jobs than people, jobs
that need doing are assigned by lot. One can live
a utopian life without ever being employed. To illustrate:
Were we to have one or two styles of
jars and bottles without glued paper labels to make reuse easier, we would
reduce garbage, save resources by reusing rather than recycling the bottles, and reduce
the variety of bottle handling machines. This reduces the number of mechanics
needed to service these machines, and the number of parts needed to keep the
machines going.
2. Another illustration.
Lake George is a large, natural lake in the middle of New York State, a popular
vacation area. Years ago, when our kids were small, we stayed at a lake front motel,
played miniature golf, and did tourist things with
other vacationers. The lake is ringed with private homes whose septic systems leach
into the lake. Internal combustion powered boats provide
transportation from cottage to town for cottage owners
as well as water skiing. The lake,
which I have not seen in years, seemed to degrade over the ten or so years I visited.
What to do?
The utopian solution develops a non-polluting power source (say fuel cells) for
boats and distributes non-polluting boats to anyone who wants one. This can be
perceived as a more reasonable use of tax dollars
than building nuclear submarines. Cottages pose a different problem.
If everyone who wants a cottage on Lake George gets one, the lake
would be surrounded by housing developments. It would be better to build
large, centrally located apartment houses, perhaps a half mile high. This
permits easy collection of human waste and garbage,
as well as provide a lake front experience to anyone who wants one. Unbridled
individualism is diminished when we balance collective good against individual desire.
We may decide some lakes with cottages should be restored to their
natural state, with displaced cottage owners assigned apartments on
populated lakes. Utopia protects the environment as it
trys to give citizens what they want. Is it authoritarian to resolve
some issues in the environment's favor?
3. Another illustration.
We now have an enormous number of automobile models with different engines,
transmissions, and parts. The automobile business generates jobs,
by turning its products into status symbols. Utopia takes a more
practical view of transportation. Limiting the number of models makes it
possible for everyone who wants a car to have one, although one car looks
like another. The arrangement is safer because bumper meets bumper, and
more efficient because mechanics fix one car rather than several different ones.
Equality means we drive similar cars.
Does that turn you off?
4. Standardization
Electronic technology requires standardization. We need one operating system, one
browser, one word processing system. Efforts to create several word processors,
operating systems, etc. reflect the desire of certain individuals to make fortunes
in the hot new technology market. That their incompatible products
make life difficult for users deters no one. We see
standardization, no matter how efficient or how simplifying as the
enemy of individualism. That's not necessarily so. If we create time to write
poems, paint pictures, make movies or do really creative, individual things,
does it matter that we use the same word processor or drive the same
automobile? Utopia, for all the standardization, can liberate individual creativity
and free us from assembly lines. All we
need surrender is the desire to see ourselves as better than our fellows.
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