A couple of local rastafas kidnapped me. First they tried to get my Visa pin code saying “Tomorrow you will not be” pointing a knife at my neck.
I replied (drunk as I was) that I could not care less. Then the man moved his knife two feet lower and said “Tomorrow you be No Man” so I had to give them what they wanted.
Now some $5000 poorer I started wondering whether money or $$$ was the number of the beast. Can we live without money and private ownership? At least crime rates would drop down.
As long as things exist, men will fight to control them.
We probably could live without money and private ownership, but society would be very different than it is.
Wow. Maybe you should talk about this some more. Like, to a supportive community like the SDMB.
Or the police.
Even if everybody went along with this, what would happen the first time there wasn’t enough to go around?
It isn’t hard to do.
Yes, they would, because everyone would be dead of starvation and exposure.
Mandatory work would be one principle.
One of the things I like about money is the ability to work now so I don’t have to work later. Would that still be possible? If so, how would that work?
That doesn’t sound like utopia to me. Instead of criminals stealing some of the proceeds of my labour, now the State steals all of it.
Besides, criminals can still steal the possessions you need to survive, except now they’ll be stealing them from a State warehouse instead of from you directly.
So replace our current system with slavery? BRILLIANT!
Actually, until we reach the point where technology can instantly supply all basic needs (i.e. machines are doing the “mandatory work”), I daresay the idea is grossly premature.
Shit, “property is theft” is my political lodestone, and even I don’t think *personal *possessions are wrong and I think money is a useful device for transferring value.
You got that right. I remember I was watching a reality show called “Kid Nation”.
In it a girl draws out a square in the dirt ground. She then professes to the rest of the kids “This is MY square and nobody else can be in it!” So what did the rest of the kids do? Well, they fought to get in it!! :smack:
I mean seriously, WTF? It’s a dirt square! It has No value!
This speaks volumes, on society as a whole, on so many levels.
Well, that example is a bit biased by the context. The kid who realizes the dirt square itself is valueless and declines to fight for access loses out on the REAL item of value - camera time.
If you don’t possess anything, how’re you gonna force me to work?
Heh, true. In this situation the OP proposes, the single most valuable possession to hang onto would be a gun. With it, you can get other possessions as you need them.
This is the Star Trek universe. No one there seems to give a whit about possessions. Except Sulu collects antique guns. :smack:
Couldn’t you just replicate antique guns so perfectly that it’d be impossible to tell the difference between guns that have really existed for hundreds of years and guns that were replicated?
Sure, but that isn’t the point of it. He presumbably enjoys the chase, search and eventual ownership of an original piece. Something you can replicate is the use of the weapon in historical context.