Arthur C Clarke describes a society of 'optimisation' in his Rama books.

Your actions have a balance effect. As long as your pulling your weight, =
no matter what it is you've been assigned to do, then there's no =
problem. You can be a road sweeper for a brain surgeon, both jobs are =
important to the good of the society.
However, if you start to slip into the red and after several attempts to =
help you out, the situation is impossible to correct, then it's =
'checkout' time.
Nobody should be a prolonged drain on society.

It has it's merits, although I might change my mind around retirement =
age...



-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Botkin [mailto:dale@BOTKIN.ORG]
Sent: 05 June 2002 16:41
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [OT]: $1-a-day wages


On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, rad0 wrote:

> rich people should pay more for everything they buy too,
> there should be a rich-persons' price, and a normal price

Absolutely.  All prices, fines, fees, etc. should be scaled to be a
percentage of a person's income, thus making everyone totally equal.  =
That
way if I choose to pour coffee or mow lawns for a living, society will
recognize that my contribution is just as valuable as, say, a doctor or =
an
engineer.

Next we'll just have to see about redistributing all that property the
rich have unjustly accumulated.  We'll just scrap those big fancy cars =
and
partition up the larger houses so everyone has the same amount...  I'm
sure all will continue to work as hard as they can for the common good,
right?  If not we'll just re-educate them in a remote area somewhere =
until
they see things the right way.

> those damn rich people...

Yep.  We need to just shoot them all, let the real workers rule the
country.

Sheesh.  Where's Karl Marx when you need him?  Or was it Harpo?

Dale

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu