Paris in the Year 2000

by Tony Moilin

  Even hospices for the old, to which old men had so much difficulty being admitted, and in which they led a miserable life, far from their friends and children, have been abolished. In the Social Republic, similar turpitudes are not tolerated, and rather than permit their reestablishment, the people who constitute the Authority would rather increase the income tax and reduce the maximum of individual fortunes to ten thousand francs, or even eight thousand.

  In any case while remaining in the milieu of Society, retired people are not entirely useless there. They continue to go to workshops and shops, where they carry out a few small tasks and give advice to the younger people. Many of them have extremely undemanding jobs, like wardens of gallery-streets, curators or demonstrators of public collections, providers of information in offices, etc. In this well-organized Society everyone can find a useful occupation proportionate to his intelligence and strength, and, except for dangerous lunatics and the dying, there is no one who cannot occupy his time and employ his faculties.

  Certain accidents—such as fires, floods, hail, crop failures, livestock diseases, etc.—may strike, not the citizens themselves, but the property they possess. The Government aids the victims of these disasters and gives them the means to repair the misfortune that has unjustly overtaken them. Thanks to this State assistance, the old Insurance Companies have become unnecessary, so they have been suppressed, the shareholders being reimbursed with annual incomes, limited, as ever, to a maximum of twelve thousand francs.

  The majority of the Parisians of the year 2000 are exceedingly extravagant. Far from thinking about putting aside any savings, they spend their wages and reimbursements in advance, living half the time on credit owed to their suppliers and never having a sou in their pocket. A few citizens are exceptional, however, and only spend a part of their income.

  Some, industrious and intelligent, employ their savings in purchasing raw materials and tools; they set up in business, or, if they are already established, they increase the scope of their business and thus increase the level of their annual income.

  Others, less ambitious or more timid, prefer to keep their money and confide it to the State, which coverts it into annual payments, which can be constituted, either to the entitlement of the depositor of the funds or to any other person—a child, a wife, a friend, etc. They can even, if desired, be transferable, and for example, credited to a mother and then, if she dies, to her children. These kinds of payments are an extremely convenient and sure way of placing money, for the Government cannot fail to keep its promises as individuals might do, and it is always ready to liquidate capital deposited with it.

  Let us make this observation: the lifelong incomes of the Social Republic are essentially different from the perpetual incomes created by the old regimes. The latter provided an interest every year without the capital being diminished, and indefinitely, so that the recipients and their children always remained rich without having any need to work, living in idleness and the vices that it engenders. The result was a class of rentiers, who believed themselves to be the most important and most estimable people in the land, because they had the means to live without doing anything.

  The Socialists put an end to that intolerable disorder. They suppressed perpetual incomes and transformed them into lifelong incomes, submissive, as is only just, to income tax—a financial operation that the Government always exercises with pleasure, because it has the double advantage of enriching the State and impoverishing useless and insolent idlers.

  III. SOCIETY

  1. Social Relations

  What characterizes the Social Republic and renders it a Government unique in the world, is that all the citizens work and have incomes that are almost equal, the richest among them having no more than twelve thousand francs per year while the poorest earn at least 2,400. The ratio of the largest and smallest incomes is thus 5:1.

  Now, that difference is not sufficiently considerable to permit the rich to live a life apart and form a so-called upper class that proudly entitles itself “Society,” while the multitude of the poor are scorned, counting for nothing in the State and having but one lot: to work, always to work, in order to maintain the luxury and idleness of the dominant caste.

  Thanks to the income tax and the suppression of all rents, that division of Society into classes has completely disappeared and, although the Republicans of the year 2000 are not completely equal in rank and wealth, they all feel a solidarity with one another, and no one has any reluctance to associate with people richer or poorer than himself.

  Moreover, what contributes a great deal to creating union and concord between the citizens is the education they receive. As will be seen in the following chapter, all children, whatever the social situation of their parents, are educated in public schools where they lead exactly the same life, following the same lessons, subject to the same examinations, and are subject to the most complete equality.

  Later, they all enter schools of apprenticeship, and then become simple workers or employees; no one can attain more wealth or a superior placement without having passed through petty employments, and making friends and acquaintances therein. Once having succeeded, they continue to live on familiar terms with their initial comrades, and the difference in wealth is never considerable enough to sever old relationships created by mutual sympathy.

  In the choice of people with whom one keeps company, therefore, one does not consider either rank or income, but simply the friendship one has for them and the pleasure experienced in seeing one another.

  Although, in such a society, some people are a little richer and others a little poorer, no one suffers from that difference because no one makes it felt, the opulence of the most fortunate never being great enough to excite the jealousy or covetousness of others.

  When the Social Republic was first established, a certain number of individuals who called themselves “nobles” and bore a “de” in front of their surname refused to submit to that life of equality, however comfortable and agreeable it might be. Their rents might have been taken away and they might have been given petty employments in relation to their abilities, but they continued to band together, only associating with one another and having the most profound scorn for the rest of humankind.

  As all these titled people were irreconcilable enemies of the new institutions, the Government did not have to treat them kindly, and this is what it did to confound their pride and suppress those distinctions of nobility of which they were so fond.

  To begin with, their parchments—the charters and citations that they valued more than life itself—were taken away, and all those wads of paper were pitilessly burned in front of them. But that was not all; wanting to punish them in a fashion appropriate to their sin, the vanity of their name, the Government debaptized them and made them adopt new names that were chosen expressly from among the most vulgar and ridiculous.

  The fury and resentment of that proud Nobility, when they were allotted names so little adapted to pride, is indescribable. It was an intolerable torture, continually renewed, and some left the country rather than submit to it. Others—those with more intelligence—were cleverer. They were the first to laugh at their new names and got used to bearing them, telling jokers that, if their names lent themselves to ridicule, it was not their fault, but that of the Republic.

  In the new Society that the Socialists have created, everyone works, without exception, and is proud to work. People no longer having rents of any kind, nor any means of living honorably in idleness, are all compelled to find employment.

  With regard to women, the Government strives to give them all professions in relation to their aptitudes. Some, in very large numbers, exercise various industries such as those of dressmaker, florist, engraver, embroiderer, box-maker, jeweler, etc. Others, almost as numerous are employed in retail establishments or work in the factories of heavy industry. Others are teachers in public schools. Finally, others are employed by the Administration as stewards, accountants, inspec
tors, directors, etc., and can only be praised for the manner in which they fulfill their functions.

  2. Property

  Property is the basis of the entire economic order of the Social Republic and every citizen has “the right to enjoy it and dispose of it in the most absolute possible fashion, provided that he does not make any use of it prohibited by the laws or regulations.”7

  If the Government has multiplied these laws and regulations, it is solely in order that everyone can conserve the fruits of his labor in their entirety and is not exposed to being deprived of them by any means.

  The citizens of the year 2000 can therefore possess all kinds of property in total security: land, houses, livestock, utensils of labor, merchandise, furniture, clothing, etc., etc. Similarly, they can exchange all these objects between them, for money or for other goods.

  However, although the exchange of property could not be more legitimate, it is not the same with speculation and commerce, which are strictly forbidden to individuals and reserved to the State.

  That distinction between commerce and exchange is easy to establish. The latter is a transient, accidental matter that can easily lead to a loss as a profit. Commerce, on the other hand, is a habit, a profession one follows: a profession in which everything in planned and organized to bring in a profit. As it can only be fruitful insofar as it takes place on a certain scale, and acquires a certain publicity, it is immediately distinguishable from simple barter, and it is the very notoriety of the delinquent that denounces him and attracts the severity of Justice upon him.

  The sales and exchanges that citizens make between themselves must always be made in cash. All promissory notes of payment are considered null and have no value in court; a person who has not been paid on surrendering an item is regarded as having made a gift of it. That suppression of sale on credit does not impede serious and honest bargains in any way, for the National Bank lends money to all those in need of it, always provided, of course, that they can provide moral or material guarantees of reimbursement. But the abolition of credit between individuals—and this is the reason for it—has cut off speculation, usury, shady dealing and all the dishonest transactions that, under the old regime, deprived workers to the profit of people who did not work.

  For the same reasons, it is absolutely forbidden to let out any immovable property. A person who possesses a house or a piece of land must live in it or cultivate it personally, or get rid of it and sell it to whoever wants to buy it.

  When, in spite of that prohibition, a citizen lets out his property, the lease is void in legal terms and the occupant remains the possessor of the leased item, being deemed to have received it as a straightforward gift. Thanks to that radical measure, the renting of land has completely disappeared in rural areas, and agriculture has only become more prosperous, since there are no longer any idle landlords who have their land farmed instead of cultivating it themselves, growing fat at their leisure on the sweat of peasants.

  On the death of parents, legitimate or legitimated children inherit all their property by right, and it is divided equally between them. The father and mother can, however, dispose of a portion of their fortune fixed by law and let it pass by testament to one of their children, relatives or strangers.

  In order to avoid all the lawsuits caused by badly-drafted testaments, the latter must be made in accordance with invariable forms, which the Government delivers to individuals ready-printed. To make one’s testament, one has only to obtain one of these forms, fill in the blanks, date and sign it, and then return it to the civil estate; one is then certain that lawyers cannot consume all or part of the estate in fees.

  When a spouse dies intestate, their wealth is divided between the children and the surviving spouse, the latter being treated on an equal basis with the children. If the deceased was a bachelor or spinster without children, it is the relatives who inherit, and, in the absence of those, the State.

  As soon as children have reached the age of majority at eighteen, they can sell what they possess in their own right and dispose of it by testament or donation without their parents raising any impediment. That right is exactly the same for the two sexes, and a woman, whether she is married or not, has the free disposition of all her property without her family, her husband or her children having any say in the matter.

  Thanks to these rights of young women and wives, marriage contracts have become extremely simple. Everyone is married under the regime of the community. Each spouse possesses his or her own property and administers at will the property acquired by dowry or by inheritance. As for property acquired during the marriage, it remains undivided between the spouses and either of them can dispose of it without the formal consent of the other. In case of separation, communal property follows the children, and, in consequence, remains with the mother, as will be seen in part 6 of this chapter; if there are no children, it is divided equally between the couple.

  3. Money

  In the Republic of the year 2000, there is no gold or silver money; the only money that is used for all transactions is paper money consisting of banknotes issued by the National Bank.

  The latter represent sums of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 centimes and 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 francs. They are of different sizes and colors according to their value, with the result that it is impossible to confuse them and to make mistakes in exchange. All these banknotes are made with reinforced paper resistant to wear. In any case, when they are torn, soiled or faded, the Government unhesitatingly exchanges them for new ones.

  When the Social Republic was established, many people made dire predictions about these banknotes, and thought that they would not take long to fail, as all systems of paper money had so far done—but the Government, buying and selling everything from and to individuals, and holding the country’s commerce entirely in its own hands, was perfectly certain of success this time. It ordered its employees not to accept gold and silver coins any longer, and those, in order to be utilized, had to be exchanged for notes. After a certain time, the Administration refused to make that exchange at par, and only treated metallic money henceforth as merchandise—which is to say, subjecting it to a small loss on its nominal value.

  Thanks to these measures, it did not take long for all the gold and silver in France to flow into the Treasury’s coffers. The Government did not leave them there, but sold them at a reasonable price to gilders, goldsmiths, jewelers, etc.—which provided a vigorous stimulus to those various industries and led to a considerable lowering of the price of all jewelry and other objects manufactured with precious metals.

  Often, instead of keeping their banknotes in their pockets or a drawer, individuals prefer to deposit them at the nearest branch of the National Bank and pay for their various acquisitions with the aid of bearer checks. Thus, an employer can pay his workers’ wages, not in cash, but in drafts that they can negotiate at a nearby Bank branch. Instead of taking the trouble to go to collect his pay, the worker is also able to leave it in a current account and pay his suppliers with checks. That method of payment is very handy, especially for small sums, since it is authenticated and dispenses with the need to ask for a receipt.

  As for the business that manufacturers transact with the Government, it is regulated in a simpler manner, not with banknotes or checks but with the aid of transfers. Each manufacturer has his current account at one of the branches of the National Bank; the sums due to him or to be collected from him are inscribed there, and he can draw on the difference.

  Thanks to these current accounts, the exact financial situation of every manufacturer is always known. As soon as one of them gets into difficulties, the Bank ceases to extend them credit, and thus avoids all the disastrous bankruptcies that desolated the commerce of the old regime, suddenly ruining perfectly honest people.

  These payments with the aid of checks and transfers seem very complicated when one explains them in writing, but in practice they are as expeditious as they are convenient, and a few branches of th
e National Bank, distributed in the various quarters of the city, are easily sufficient for all the needs of commerce, and regulate an immense number of transactions on a daily basis without there ever being the slightest loss to vendors or purchasers.

  4. Dwellings

  In rural areas, every cultivator has his own house, and when a new citizen comes to take up residence in a locality, the National Bank willingly lends him money to buy a dwelling, or to construct one if there are none vacant.

  In cities, hardly anyone owns his lodgings; it is the State that owns all the houses and rents them to individuals.

  These houses are divided into independent rooms, but all of them can communicate with one another by means of interior doors, and, in accordance with one’s desire to have a larger or smaller apartment, one rents as many contiguous rooms as one needs.

  The cost of rents is always very moderate, especially in the outlying quarters, and one can obtain comfortable lodgings for fifty or sixty francs a year. In the city center and the busiest streets, it is true, the rents are considerably higher because of competition between the inhabitants, and also because the houses are much more sumptuous and the rooms more richly decorated.

  Furthermore, the Government does not employ any strategy to increase the returns of its rents. It never increases its rents as a matter of policy or threatens to expel those who refuse to pay more dearly. When a dwelling becomes vacant, the employees of the City put it out for rent by means of a kind of auction, awarding it to the highest bidder, and once installed, the latter remains tranquilly in possession of his new domicile so long as he does not decide to move of his own accord.