For me, one of the hardest things about writing is that it takes so long. I'm ready for my novels to be done NOW. And instead I have wade through page after page. They pile up, but it takes time. And I'm impatient. One zillion ideas are out there. Not enough hours in the day.
And the hours I do have, I have to use them to make a living. Money is truly the bane of the creative spirit. And we gotta have it. At least enough to buy food and keep us warm when it's cold. Oh, and I shouldn't forget clothing. (My neighbors always complain when I do.)
One of the more intriguing aspects of the Star Trek universe is that mankind has grown past the need for money. They interact with alien cultures that still use currency in some form, but mankind itself no longer has an economy based on paychecks.
They're pretty vague on the details of this, mostly because it's so hard to imagine. How would such a system work? It's described as each person working for his/her personal fulfillment. Artists pursuing their artistic visions, writers writing for the love of the word, chefs cooking to perfect their skill and so on.
But how would that work? Who would choose to work the sewers or clean garbage or do any of the other mind-numbing, back-breaking jobs that society depends on? How would you create a system that didn't use money or barter? One that encouraged people to choose self-actualization over wealth? I'm trying to wrap my mind around it and having difficulty. Can you?
6 comments:
Re: Star Trek and money.
I'm CONSTANTLY working on that concept and--eventually--plan to incorporate some of the results into future novels.
Maybe all of the menial day to day chores are done by robots, or machines. If that is the case then it would free up ppl to do what they wanted...?
P.S. I figured as much about the excerpts. They really are good, you had me hooked :) susan2
Robots would be good but who would make the robots? And I thought AI was a scary movie.
I don't think we are made to have a system without $$$ of some type. Although you'd think my family was making it without money after the government gets done with my husbands paycheck!!! :)
Susan1
I have to agree with Susan1. I don't see how a system without money would work. Even barter is a form of currency. The early Christian church attempted to function as a commune, but it failed. Many different communes have been attempted, especially during the '60s, and none have survived.
It would require a fundamental change in human beings. A people like that would be as alien to us as something from another galaxy.
Cool, FF. I was wondering if I had coded it wrong.
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