Hi Ray:
Nice link. I enjoyed the essay, agree with its sentiments, aspire to live that way. I don't understand why you see Maurice as the antithesis of this particular utopian vision.
I guess it's a question of how you get there rather than the end point. The answer to all of mankind's problems is economic development, pure and simple. A civilization needs a lot of surplus wealth before it can devote adequate resources to ensuring clean air and water, natural food for everyone and open space in perpetuity. To get that wealth you must have the rule of the law, enforceable contracts, energetic and creative capital markets, adequate but not excessive regulation and a population that wants to work and that contains enough entrepreneurs to make things happen (Maurice's 1%). Civilizations that are ruled by political and cultural dogma, rigid cultural mores, doctrines of "fairness" or that succumb to political corruption and pandering to an entitled populace just won't get the job done. Fortunately, humans are innately competitive and acquisitive and it looks to me as if the unfettered forces of bare knuckled capitalism are going to transform the face of the planet this century. Just as food became incredibly cheap and plentiful in the 20th Century, manufactured goods will become incredibly cheap and plentiful in the 21st, to those civilizations with the backbone to embrace bare-knuckled capitalism. Just as 1% or 2% of the population of the US feed us all now, 10% of the population will provide us with all the cars, appliances and computers that we can use in 40 or so years. That means an incredible increase in the potential quality of life.
If you want the "good life" as you say you do, the opportunity is there if you earn it. |
