"So your free speech is sometimes limited, especially when it goes against the belief of some religion. Eh?
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
-” Let's move on to another area. What about employment?
"Keeping people employed is not much of a problem here. For one thing, unless you are a millionaire, you need to keep working. But more important, most of us have chosen to do jobs that we like. When you love to go to work, it isn't really work. Another thing, is that because it is so expensive to have children, a majority of people choose not to have them. There is certainly no pressure to make people retire to make room for young people who want to enter the workforce. Obviously the fact that people all over the world are living longer and healthier lives puts any thought of retirement further down the road of longevity.
"We can take vacations whenever we want to recharge our batteries. We can change our occupations if we are qualified and desire a change.
“Of course there are some problems. With selfishness as our underlying psychological pillar and altruism generally frowned on, when people haven’t prepared themselves to be contributors in our modern workforce, they can stay and starve to death or they can try to emigrate. The ‘do-gooder’ Scandinavian nations often take our people in. Those countries are intent on showing the world that their equalitarian path to justice is superior to our idea of justice based on inequality and liberty.
“Con, as a businessman I know that you understand the inequalities I am talking about--intelligence, likeableness, effort, honesty, continuing education, punctuality and other elements of the work ethic."
-"I'm sure you know, Tyler, that in the past much of unemployment was cyclical, today much of it is structural. By cyclical I mean that no society creates exactly as many widgets as somebody wants to buy. When there is an overproduction of something and not enough sales of the product the production workers may have to be laid off. But when the inventory has been reduced they can then be rehired.
"By structural I mean when the industry no longer exists or where more effective means of production can be used. In one case that might mean using robots to assemble parts of an automobile or a jetliner. In another case it might be outsourcing the production to a country that can produce it more cheaply. The obvious example is the US moving production to Asia. Another example of structural change can be seen where the middle classes of countries are increasing and are buying more goods-- and those goods and services may be provided more cheaply if they’re made near to the buyers. Both India and China are examples of this."
"We recognize that, Con, that is why so much of our business is in research and development and providing service industries. We do very little manufacturing and what we do is of a more advanced level than can be done in the developing nations. Naturally we have to stay ahead of the third world, and even the developed world, technologies.”
-"What kinds of manufacturing. Do you do?”
"We do very high level manufacturing. For example one of our big projects now is developing and manufacturing synthetic rare earths. As you may know, rare earths are essential to many of our modern conveniences such as: televisions, cell phones, computers and in fiber optics and automobiles. There are two major sources today, one is in California and the other in Mongolia. We have developed super high pressure, high temperature technologies that we think will be able to duplicate many of these elements.
"You may know that Japan tried to recycle rare earths from electronic wastes but found it extremely difficult and finally gave up on the project. China of course has a near monopoly on many of the rare earths. They have used this strategically, for example in 2010 they stopped shipments to Japan because of a dispute with Japan about an island. But they also reduced shipments to all other countries. Unless more deposits are found in other places on the Earth, somebody had to try to make these, or substitute products, otherwise many of our modern technologies will grind to a halt.
"We on making Lanthanum which is an important catalyst in oil refining. We also make Europium which is used in TV and computer screens and in fluorescent lighting which is far more energy efficient than incandescent lighting. We are working on others, but it may be several years before we have the technology. After we develop these elements we need highly educated people to manufacture the products in which they are used. Even our noncitizen children are pretty highly educated so it gives them a far better opportunity to be productive than would any Third World manufacturing setup.
"Another area where we will develop the technology and manufacture the products is in eldercare robots. These robots replace the people who would have been changing the beds, washing the patients, cleaning the rooms and even talking to the patients. Every morning local and international news as well as the situations of fellow patients is programmed into the robots' computers. So they can answer and ask questions and carry on low level conversations with the patients.
“An area where we lead the world is in educational video games. We have developed programs that ingest large amounts of information and categorize that information into the appropriate grade levels and subject matter areas. Let me give you an example. We have a prototype program for history. It incorporates social mores, religions, the economic situations and problems, the wars and power struggles, the heroes and villains, the art and music, the philosophies and other areas that are evident in a society. The program reads thousands of books about the era. It then categorizes information according to the areas I just mentioned into the appropriate grade level from grade 1 to the doctoral level. At this point history specialists analyze the information according to appropriate grade levels and make whatever changes they think are mecessary.
"At this point the animators and writers are called in. They develop the programs for each grade level of history and for each subject area. For example our students study the history of our own country exclusively for the first three years. Then we begin to study world history. By the sixth grade we are studying economic systems and political systems. At the high school level we continue to study our own society but we also enlarge on our place in the world. At this level and into the college level our students may study in depth a number of different societies or different historical threads. For example they might study economic history or political history or perhaps the history of Egypt or India. Our repertoire of historical studies is immense. We sell many of these video programs throughout the world.
“Of course we do this in every possible academic area: mathematics, French literature, chemistry, American literature, physics, astronomy, geography, physical and social anthropology, sociology, economics-- you name it, we either have a program or are working on one. This is an area where experts are encouraged to come to our country and participate in our grand plan. It is so exciting and we have many of the best people in the world working on this project.
"So far we have been successful in avoiding a recession like you people in the West have experienced. I think the major reason is that our education is so extensive that our leaders and our workers are quite flexible in what they can do. They are not just welders or carpenters or accountants. They can move in many directions. That is not to say that a world wide depression wouldn't affect us. But we have to be prepared to be able to shift our economy towards upper-class tastes because rich people always seem to have spendable cash.”
-"You seem to be in a pretty good position to be able to ride out economic downturns. As you said your extensive education is a major factor. Along with that is the fact that you don't have as many babies as other countries so you do not need to provide them with jobs by the time they are 18 or 20. What we saw in the world back around 2010 was that people needed to be more responsible for themselves. Just about every Western country made promises to society that they couldn't keep.
“They just let the babies keep coming while unemployment was rising and paychecks were decreasing. It’s something like Greece when they hit the financial wall 15 years ago, salaries were cut
while the EU price structure stayed put. The Greeks therefore became poorer. They had been used to low prices and entitlement perks. Their fairy tale economic tradition became a science fiction horror story-- the Big Bad Wolf blew down all the houses of the little pigs and ate both Little Red Riding Hood and grandma. A world of Draculas had sucked the blood out of nearly every Western society.”
-"But Wreck, some of the welfare states seemed to be able to handle the problem. In Denmark when workers were displaced, the government paid them while they retrained for jobs in other areas where there was a need for workers."
"As I said, I like our approach. We have high levels of education and we have every possible type of insurance available to our citizens. They just have to choose what insurance they want in order to guard against the inevitable misfortunes that too often befall us. Whether it is illness, joblessness, accidents or whatever-- it is up to us to protect ourselves.
"When I look at the trouble that so many societies are in because they did not control their populations or educate them, I feel sad for them but vindicated for us. Just look at the under 30 group of people in the world-- mostly unemployed. In Algeria 60% of the population are under 30, in Tunisia 52%, in Libya 58%, in Egypt 61%, in Sudan 67%, in Iraq 68%, in Saudi Arabia 60%, 58% in Iran and in Somalia 70% and so it goes! Just where are these societies supposed to manufacture jobs? They can revolt peacefully, as in Egypt, or violently, as in Libya, but no political system can create a utopian economic paradise. You can protect the dictator or fight for democracy-- there is no system yet devised that can absorb this ever-increasing number of young people. Commander there is no question that you are on the right track in your quest to reduce population. But my question is which hardship will be worse for people to endure, the unemployment and poverty that we have today or the lack of employment we will need as a population reduces. Both will be painful.”
-“You are right! But one will be permanent and the other will be temporary. But unfortunately even the temporary problems will last a few generations and I'm not sure that people can handle it. But I see many people responding to the needs of government to reduce spending and increase taxation. I never thought I would see that in my country, but even in California the citizens understand the need for more tax money. Of course asking them to have fewer children is asking for a much more difficult sacrifice than just increasing their taxes. But it seems that the government's needs are more evident, and have been more widely publicized, than the need for the survival of the human race.
"Serious scientists are somewhat split between whether we will be extinct in 100 years, as Dr. Frank Fenner of Australia believes, or whether our population will reduce to about 500 million people, as Professor James Lovelock of the UK believes. Professor of Microbiology Fenner, of the Australian National University, was a major mover in the eradication of smallpox. We might assume that he knows something about eradication. Professor Lovelock has earned doctorates in both medicine and biophysics and has eight honorary doctorates. He has published over 200 scientific papers, several books and has 50 patents. These men are obviously highly intelligent and involved in the workings of the earth and its biology. I think we should listen to them. They both see they need for population reduction as the major avenue to climate change. The question is whether it is too late. Dr. Fenner thinks it is!”
“I certainly hope it isn't. But when I look at the facts of overpopulation, climate change and the unwillingness of people to change, I can't help but be afraid for the world. But naturally I assume that our country will survive. But I guess every country believes the same thing.”
- “You have told us why you probably don't have unemployment problems, but you haven't said what will happen if you do have them.”
“If the people haven't bought unemployment insurance or haven't got families or friends that will support them while they are unemployed, they might emigrate or they just die on the street.”
SMOKING
- “Why can't you people understand that God will provide. He will not let his children vanish. So let's get back to some other laws. Everybody knows that smoking is harmful to the individual and to those in the immediate area of the smoker. Many of our states have outlawed smoking in public buildings, restaurants etcetera. But because of your emphasis on freedom, do you allow it?”
"We allow it but it is extremely uncommon. Some of our immigrants have brought the habit with them, particularly those from Asia. But remember our requirement for responsibility. If you smoke your health insurance rates double. You are not allowed to smoke where non-smokers can smell it. And as I said previously, if you want children smoking is not allowed because of the epigenetic and environmental negatives that may affect the child.”
RELATIONSHIPS
-"All right, what about relationships. Do you allow partnerships between heterosexuals or homosexuals? What about homosexuals being parents? What about surrogate mothers?”
"Any kind of relationships are permissible. We do recommend checks for sexually transmitted diseases when people decide to live together. The government has developed checklists which a couple might want to discuss before they enter into a relationship. There are questions dealing with sex, domestic responsibilities, and other areas that have been found to be important in relationships. But the couple need not discuss or agree on any such issues. But in our education they should have learned that we humans are pretty complicated beings and there is more than meets the eye in our personalities. So they know that it is wise to explore these possible issues. But I don't have any idea of how many actually do.
“Maybe you are wondering about the financial aspects of relationships, Ray. We are all independent. If and when a relationship ceases to exist, the partners go their merry way continuing their lives. There is no spousal support. We keep what is ours or what we have bought during the relationship. Any child support would have been determined before the contract with the government was signed. As you remember, the parents are equally responsible for the expenses of a child until he or she finishes the university. In the contract with the government those expenses could be shared equally, in proportion to incomes, or one might take full responsibility for the financial costs of child. If there is no contract, the law is that all child expenses are shared equally."
-"Do you allow polygamy?”
Book 9 A Libertarian Paradise Page 11
