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Can We Be Independant And Still Succeed

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
Many People promote a prostituted society: we'll sell our services to someone if we get money -- we'll help somebody with a plan if they share part of the house -- we'll marry them if we share tax benefits. But I think that we can be independant and still succeed in life. It won't be as affluent but we can succeed. Imagine if everyone took their own house building, food gathering, and money making into their own hands. Then we could get rid of such negative standards such as Cheating, Tax Evasion, and what have you.

What is your discussion
 

Ganondork

goo
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Imagine if everyone took their own house building, food gathering, and money making into their own hands.

I have a few problems with this. The most prominent is this: what's the point of having money if we are entirely independent? Part of this entire scenario seems to imply that you don't need other people to get what you want, because you can simply do it yourself. So why then should money even exist? You won't be trading with people for goods, as you're supposed to be making them yourself.

In fact, in this scenario, the job market would cease to exist. You won't have people manufacturing your cars, building your houses. Taxi services will be a thing of the past, and so forth. You'll be theoretically self-sufficient, and therefore don't need people to supply you with goods or provide services. It seems like what you are thinking about is a place in which everyone lives autonomously.

My second problem with this is that building a house isn't easy. Making your car is not easy. It requires a lot of people, and plenty of heavy machinery to put together a decent house. Putting together a car takes expertise, and access to a lot of metal and other items that aren't easily found. So many things that we take for granted - like air-conditioning - are not really easy to put together, let alone find the materials without the assistance of machinery.

Something like this was easier to do centuries and millennia ago, back when our technology wasn't nearly as complex. It's easier to make tools out of wood and flint, or mobile houses made out of animal hide. Nowadays, though, it's almost impossible. Take a look at people who live off the land. They don't live like us. Their existence is so wildly different that it's not remotely comparable to this idea that you're proposing.

Then we could get rid of such negative standards such as Cheating, Tax Evasion, and what have you.

People will always do bad things. They'll steal the materials of others, kill each other for territory, etc. The deeds may change, but bad deeds will never, and I cannot stress that word enough, go away.

I'll go ahead and post one of my favorite comics involving this sort of subject:

MrNozicksNeighborhood_1.jpg

MrNozicksNeighborhood_2.jpg
 

Curmudgeon

default setting: sarcastic prick
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Gender
grumpy
So we're going to make our own clothing, nails, finished lumber, utensils, shoes, food containers, food preservatives, soap, candles, etc? Assuming we want to live post-1880 we're going to manufacture our own parts and perform our own maintenance on mechanical devices? Certainly, millions of starving desperate people would never resort to theft or any other manner of violence to stay alive.

The division of labor is as old as human society. Total independence is essentially impossible. Even socialist systems that call for the end of class inequality and private property recognize that economic realities like comparative vs absolute advantage exist.
 

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