Table of Contents

"Our economic activities generally create more than they destroy. Hence we should encourage freedom and enterprise rather than fettering opportunity and throttling down the rate of progress Julian Simon."

Driven by global competition and other forces, America today is completing its transition from a Second Wave nation with a rusty smokestack, assembly-line economy to a sleek computer driven, information and media dense economy and social system that, surprisingly, will have many features of the pre-industrial past. Swept along by the Third Wave of history, we are creating a new civilization." Alvin & Heidi Toffler

Ancient Limits

"The happy man inevitably confines himself to ancient limits (Nathaniel Hawthorne, l85l)."

"One corporation's layoff is another's lost customer (Wall Street Wisdom)."

"What goes around comes around (Off-Wall Street Wisdom)."

"The best are likely only to have moderate fortunes (Bertrand Russell, 1945)."

        We do too much in our lives: too much production, too much work, too much consumption, and too many possessions and matters to handle. Let's begin by slowing down and doing less. Once this is accomplished, let's do what we do more efficiently.

        Economic systems are the lifeblood of Utopia, and expenses are the lifeblood of economic Systems. The following hypothetical case illustrates the New Capitalism.

        Company B buys materials from Company A. Company A charges Company B based on a fixed percentage of Company B's profits. If Company B makes more money this year, then A will also receive more from B for the purchased Items. A's success will spread through A's network of companies because A too will be charged by other companies based on its increased profits. Success will synergetically filter through the the entire economic system.

        Utopians avoid revolutionary processes that are vulnerable to becoming dysfunctional, e.g., violence. Instead, it attempts to take what we've got and make it work. Instead of trying to change inflation, let's create a system that actually utilizes it in a nondysfunctional way. Thus, the more we pay for things, the better off all of us are. Inflation can be made functional in this way.

        This is the basic difference between this model and the revolution model. The Utopian model requires change but does not run counter to basic human tendencies. It tries to accommodate basic human psychological needs.

        Utopians would likely avoid narcissistic foe-based capitalism in favor of the more cooperative new capitalism where success is synergetic and wealth & power cooperative and creative.

        The Mahony Curve could enable corporations to recognize the point at which more is not better. Neither would more personal goods and more personal property be better--the Curve also applies to individuals. Nevertheless, high quantity can be desirable at times.

        Most utopian-capitalist corporations would "think smaller" and be owned by individuals, families, employees, or combinations thereof. Business decisions would be unanimous whenever possible. The purpose of competition between corporations would be for healthy growth, not for destruction of opponents. Competition within a corporation would be for purposes of personal and organizational excellence. There would be no wealth-accrual limit except where dysfunction results.

        Deflation would eventually become the rule as the patient recovers. (See chart of American business history prior to the Great Compulsion Era, Appendix 1). For example, as more computers are produced their prices go down.

        Utopian governments could follow Mazlow's Needs Hierarchy, for example, and make sure each of Its elements are made available for ALL.

Food and tools necessary for basic survival would be free to all.

Naturally, there will be a small percentage or those who do not want to work. Nature usually provides rare individuals who do not take part in the larger society, an "exception for every rule." They are an evolutionary checking mechanism and a gift to the rest of society.

Many utopian proposals have included a service class. In Utopia, however, the only service class would be government employees who would be esteemed by society at large for their service.

Property for ALL

"A man is not a full and complete man until he owns his house and the ground on which it sits (Walt Whitman, 1819-1892)."

"Let the people have property and they will have power (Daniel Webster, 1758 - 1843)."

        Utopian governments would insure equal access to the basic necessities of life, equal access to work, and to, "...a good house to live in with a garden. back or front, just as the occupier likes; good clothing to keep him warm and make him look respectable. and plenty of good food and drink to make him look and feel happy (Chartists, l839)." Most Utopians would be property owners.

        Maximum size would be determined not by government but by the earned and morally amassed wealth of each owner. Properties would likely vary considerably in size. There would be no upper limits unless dysfunctional.

        Minimum lot size could be, say, 1/5 of an acre for houses. Apartments could be, say, 2000 cu. ft. per person. No uniformity would be required except as a neighborhood desires. Government would not be permitted to cross the boundaries of an individual's property except in extreme circumstances.

       We can begin to turn over abandoned urban and suburban dwellings to tenant ownership. As early as 1932. the following article appeared in the New York Times.

Plan Provides for Sale of Low-Cost Apartments to Tenants.

A plan for tenant apartment ownership in low-priced housing construction projects in the Bronx is advanced by the Bronx Housing Association, of which George Donnelly is president.

The plan would be carried out by a corporation managed by experts familiar with the details of multiple-family housing and to act as one of two trustees. the other being a trust company which would handle all funds and pay all bills.

Because this idea of multiple family ownership has never been tried. under the summary law which is 112 years old, there is no reason why it could not be accomplished now. as it would be a greater protection to not only the participating owners. but a guarantee for mortgage money invested as security in these properties.

[U.S. Seeks to Increase Minority Homeowners WASHINGTON (Reuters, Sunday June 11, 2000) - U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo says he wants to increase the national homeownership rates to more than 50 percent among blacks and Hispanics over the next three years. ``I believe we can and must reach this historic goal, because the dream of homeownership isn't reserved for white families -- it's an American Dream and it's open to every family in our country,'' Cuomo said at a meeting Saturday of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Seattle.]

        Create a version of the American 1932 Federal Home Loan Bank Board to prevent foreclosures and evictions of unemployed persons. The Board issued bonds to pay the mortgages of unemployed persons. Homeowners resumed repayment when re-employed.

Work

Utopians would not work more hours to earn the money to buy food and fuel than they would work if they simply gathered the food and fuel themselves.

No one would have a second job just because one is underpaid at work. The top-paid people share their bonus money with the least-paid employees. The top-paid would get good bonuses and yet still be highly paid. And this goal is a realistic one because it has already happened in a few companies.

A  workday would consist of the minimum time required by nature for basic personal survival plus a minimum amount of work for the benefit of the community.

The total workweek would be approximately twenty hours.

[Most work would be rotated, as was suggested by utopian Charles Fourier in the 1830s. No one would do the same task for more than an hour per day unless that is his or her preference.

Utopian entrepreneurs who create jobs for others my want to pay a tax that replaces their required community work.

Time is Money

The Utopian monetary unit, the uni, would be valued in terms of the tim. it takes to earn it. We propose that one uni = one hour of work. The uni would have an easily understandable value when one purchases goods or ma£es business deals.

        There could be one hourly pay rate but Utopian economic systems could retain the natural hierarchical difference in the desirability of one type of work over another. Since there will likely always be some jobs that are easier or more rewarding or both. one could work one's way "up" to the most self-fulfilling job. But the pay could be the same.

        Personal amassing of money would be achieved through entrepreneurial projects. One could also earn money through private entrepreneurial projects and then pay a fair and relatively small tax.

        The uni could be a coin made of recycled plutonium that has been rendered harmless. There could be trillions of such coins. using up ail of the world's plutonium supply to mint them. This would prevent the buildup of nuclear weapons and every coin would serve as a reminder.

Price = Value

        Utopians avoid the secrecy involved in most Pre-Utopian business transactions. They would avoid today's surreal economy where prices only rarely reflect the actual value of goods. Take, for example, the sale. The buyer must always beware of withheld information about what he or she is buying.

        The uni-hour: worked,.' is one way for buyer: to determine value of good true unit pricing.

        Begin to think or present-day dollars in terms or how long we worked for them, especially when shopping.)

List price = sale price. 

        Bargains and sales are far too often misrepresentation.. They are usually only recently raised prices reduced back to their original price.

Taxation

        Prior to the need for taxation, each Utopian pays for govt. services as needed. This greatly reduces the complexity of the tax system. In Utopia all earn essential money from their twenty-hour workweek.

        Entrepreneurs would work no more than ten additional hours a week as taxation or pay a tax. There is no other taxation necessary because most government services are purchased as needed by individual consumers.

© 2000 danmahony.com

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