lindalove

Well, subject line says it all...

Tell us what you think should be the emphasis, at the expense of other things, that a good society would hold.
Why should it have this emphasis?
How would you propose to attain those qualities?

And equally importantly, what is wrong with the assertations that others have voiced?

I says that first, above all, a perfect society would not be lead by any kind of council. That is to say, there is a specific, definable, and single entity at the top. Perhaps s/he has checks and balances applied against him/her, but ultimately s/he has the biggest role in determining direction. I say this because a nation that trips over itself is bullsh*t.

kutulu

There are way too many decisions that have to be made in order for things to run smoothly and efficiently. It's not just law enforcement and defence, but resource management, environmental protection, infrastructure, heath care, power supply, communications, food supplies, etc. People do not have the time to learn about all these things to the extent that is required in order to make informed decisions about them. Therefore, the only way to have these things managed efficiently is to have a council made up of experts in those fields that have the knowledge to make the best decisions possible.

The first thing that people need to understand is that all of the jobs need to be filled. Everything from the guy who has to run the country down to the person who has to scrape up road kill from the street. Additionally, in order for society to continue without a massive contraction in population (resulting in the inability to fill all the required jobs), people need to be able to support a family without having to resort to unethical means to provide the necessities.

Therefore, people, regardless of what job they do, have to be able to support themselves and their family. This means that the people on the top need to be paying the peons enough for them to be able to have transportation, sustinance, shelter, health services, education, and a reasonable amount of entertainment. The only way for this to happen is for the people at the top to not be so damn greedy and insist that they deserve to make 20,000 times what the people on the bottom make.

Rodney

It needs to be structured so that, for individuals, serving the common good is obviously in their own best interest. Not just in some moral, idealistic, long-term way, but as very nut-and-bolts, here-and-now way of improving their own lot.

Not sure how we'd get there. But it's got to beat the current system, which best rewards those who pile up the biggest hoard of money while putting fewer and fewer restraints on how they do that.

I guess we'd have to somehow change the values of society. A nice, long, wicked depresssion might help plow the ground for something like this. But who wants to live through something like that?

skier

Every individual would have to be telepathic, in a manner that dishonesty would be impossible. Also, every individual would have to have the ability to take an objective viewpoint, remembering not just the recent events but the ones further behind. And they would have to be able to use this information to analyse their world from the microcosm to the macro in order to determine which actions will most benefit himself, his/her comunity, his/her species, his/her planet.

In short, everyone would have to be telepathic, supersmart, superhonest, and have strong universal moral and ethical standards that serve as a base for less certain moral standpoints.

__________________
"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim

politicophile

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
-James Madison

In a "perfect" world, there would be no need for a government. Thus the society would be a self-regulating affair that satisfied all the needs of all its members.

__________________
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

alansmithee

Perfect society-

Central Authority
High amount of order
Transgressions immediately met with retribution

MSD

Fuck, he stole my answer. Do I have to come up with another one?

Gilda

There's no such thing. Just as different people thrive in different roles in a relationhip, different types of society serve different needs for the people in them.

A white supremecist/separatist would thrive in an all white society that supressed or excluded non-whites. Other people might funtion better in a more pluralistic society.

Some would do best in a culture that forced them to make their own way, while others would do best with a government that provided many necessary services.

You'd need a group of differeint societies to provide what each individual in the overall society with what they needed.

Gilda

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chriswin8

As I see it the driving is the Aquisition of Weals. And that there is reaonly only so much money to go around.
What I think is we need to chage the driving force so that it is the betterment of all mankind the world over. Once this is done You will truly have peice.

Here is my 10 year plan on how to do this. It will be very heard to do. But anything worth doing never is easy.

This is only my 2 cents. So if you see a flaw please speak up. I have been working on this a wile.

To start what would be the one thing that you would change to turn a Snowflake into a anvilanche.

IMHO I would make all the utilitys Free. This would then Alevate A great portion of the money sink. There by flooding the market with more money then it needs. That would trickel down to the manufacturing level. You nolonger have these great expenses of running plants, and houses. And as long as greed doesn't get to rampent. the cost of develeping and massproducing items should drop. (Year1)

Then you would have to convince the major commercial corperation to start gradualy reducing the prices on all items and services. (25% a year, over 4 years.) that will take you to year 5. Here you will make all items for Barter. (you can have this TV if you do ?????)But it has to be something that helps out someone else. And eliminate all money.

Offer free Skill Training in anything anyone wants (5 Years) lottery style for half the population. Or Via Aptitued testing. Starting at the same time as the free utilitys.
I for one love working with Wood for a hobby. I would make a great Carpenter. Make the unwanted jobs rotational. 1 year out of every 5 years is spent working for the government. Kinda set up like Jury duty. That way the needed work will still get done. This will give people a feeling of selfworth and of helping to maintain the way the world works.

And while the first group is being trained. the People that already know how to do Said jobs will be doing them for free. The already existing work force will be making and distributing homes and food for the people doing there skill training, and themselfs. Then at year 5 swap teh work forces. Those that Gradueate at in the first 5 years will then become the work force. Then the other half of the population gos to school. At the end of the 10 years. You will have both work forces going.

This ten year plan will suck for the adults. But thats just to keep adults busy as they make the real Change. The children. That how this plan will work. You are making it so the children are raised into an envirement that supports this way of life. So that it is a easy thing for them.

As you have been doing your work the children will be tought like they are now in k-12. only you will be adding the new way of life to there teachings get to the collage level they will be ready to find there place in the world.

But then this is only one mans opinnion. And i am sure there are flaws i have not thought of.

BigBen

Well, that results in a huge FREE RIDER PROBLEM, where people would waste utilities because they are cheap. Leave the lights on at night and let the sprinklers run in the rain, because we don't have to pay for them. The ensuing chaos would corrupt your system.
Nothing you do will convince any corporation to lower their prices. That will have to come through legislation. And with that comes the end of a free market and the help of an invisible hand to make things even out in the short/long run.
I suggest you research the usefulness of currency in a modern economy. Money and banking are the pillars of society, and the fact that a person can save money and accumulate wealth allows for investment in factors of production, and the provision of employment.

I would start with a textbook on Macroeconomics and then move on to Money and Banking.

If you have a TV that you are willing to give me in exchange for something, I have to have something that I value equal, or less than the TV for that exchange to take place. You would be a fool to accept anything less than what the TV is worth in your eyes, making the exchange happen only if something equal is traded. What if I don't have anything that both of us agrees is equal? No exchange happens, and both of us are left sitting there; You with a TV you don't want and Me wanting a TV.

You can't save when bartering. The coincidental need/want fulfillment will happen very rarely.

With introducing a form of currency into the situation, you can buy exactly what you want with the procedes of your transaction.

Money is not evil. It is the most important thing to make a society run smoothly. Please don't confuse it with the intentions of evil people who possess vast somes of it.

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Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.

chriswin8

You make some very valid points. Hmm I guess I will have to take a look at how to do this without squashing peoples Rights.