"The master's dealings with the third servant is a very different matter. This servant came to his master with only the talent his master had originally entrusted to him. He did not increase his master's money at all. In fact, if this were to take place today, that money would likely be worth less, due to inflation. This servant offered a feeble excuse for his conduct. He told his master that he was a harsh and cruel man, a man who was demanding, and who expected gain where he had not labored. He contended that this is why he was afraid to take a risk with any kind of investment. And so he simply hid the money, and now he returned it, without any gain. The master rebuked this slave for being evil and lazy. He took his talent from him, gave it to the one who earned ten, and cast this fellow into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth." [emphasis mine] Source.
Do you suppose this is what Karl Marx had in mind with the famous slogan, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs"?
Money is neither good nor bad, it is simply a tool which is supposed to make it much easier and convenient to trade goods and services. Two of the most vile inventions of humans have been usury and the so-called "profit motive". The innate unfairness of demanding to be repaid $110 when the loan was for $100 is first noted (as far as I can tell) in the ancient biblical texts. The Jews of the time decided that it was not good to do this to a fellow Jew but it was fine to screw over anyone else. At various times in social and religious history, the practice of usury was encouraged or outlawed. The fact that nations and the citizens of them are suffering so much is due in great measure to this practice. As a nation, the US was doomed economically when it allowed the establishment of the Federal Reserve, which puts complete control of all money in the hands of private individuals, rather than in Congress which is, at least in principle, answerable to the people. One of the powers of Congress, according to Article 1, Section 8 is, "To coin Money, to regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures".
The Profit Motive is based on the premise that all, or at least most, people are motivated purely or primarily by self-interest, as espoused in the Ayn Randian Libertarian ideology. There is a degree of truth in this, in evolutionary terms, but it is grossly overly simplistic..."self-interest" can mean many different things, not simply direct personal gain at the expense of or to the exclusion of others. There is much 'self-interest' encompassed within the broader notion of the good of the whole. No one man could ever possibly have built the pyramids...or the US highway system.
In order to fix the world one must first make it a death penalty offense - probably the ONLY such offense - to engage in the practice of usury. Next, some method must be found to make it forever impossible for one person or group of persons to ever have more than another. The only way I know of to do this is to base the pay for work, not on the the kind of work, but on the amount of time devoted to it. Every human, without exception, has 24 hours in a given day. There is absolutely no way for anyone to ever have more than that. It is a fundamental law of nature, at least on this planet. Society should agree upon a certain amount of money that is to be paid to every person who spends a certain amount of their time per day (or week or month, etc.) doing work that is beneficial to the society. This would even follow the notion of "he who does not work shall not eat", not literally, but to a point. Given that the only persons who can truly do absolutely nothing for society are the dead, comatose and unconscious, there would be an abundance of workers. The most menial, repetitive, dangerous and nasty kinds of jobs would be mostly automated...so much so, that the needed amount of time spent "working" in this sense, by any individual, would be quite small. The rest of their time could be spent simply living their lives, doing those things which gave them personal satisfaction and pleasure.
Everyone could spend their money on whatever "personal items" they wished. No one would be allowed to hoard any items - why would anyone want to. Aside from purely personal items such as toothbrushes, no one would be allowed to "hold property"; rather, there would be an abundance of all things for all people to use whenever and wherever they were needed. There would never be any charge at all to anyone for basics such as food, clothing, housing, medical care, transportation, etc. No "Utopia" is ever possible. There would always be some percentage of persons unable or unwilling to live in such a way. Technology must be advanced to the point that such individuals can be reprogrammed to within acceptable societal parameters. Perhaps such persons could be given a choice of this or death or genuine and total exile from society.
Update from the Tin Can:
At least we got all the major bills paid this time, including the rent. The landlady decided to lower our rent for a while, so that will help. Remember, Melinda put in an application to be a cook in the restaurant at the truck stop? We never heard back...now we learn the whole place went out of bidness...hahahahaha I told her she should apply fer a gubmint job, ba da boom.
Now we return you to the regular program already in progress... join the smooth groove with the mellow stylings of Slick Jism and the Fleshtones, with "Sweet Honey Pie".
TRB
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