Basis for International Interactions
Utopian societies, like all others, engage in interactions. These interactions are typically initiated by citizens or organizations within the society. For any interaction involving money or sovereignty, the society is indirectly involved, and its financial infrastructure (that is, UFI) operates on its behalf.
Importing, exporting, international money transfers, travel, investments, and acquiring dual citizenship are all examples of societal interactions. Each of these activities falls under distinct international topics.
This chapter discusses the ideas underlying all these international topics. The ideas are:
- Boundaries and Independence
- Sovereignty and Jurisdiction
- Agreements and Cooperation
- Caring vs Harming
- Similarities and Differences
- Unions and United World
For every international topic, we discuss ideas, make choices, develop concepts, and design systems. Each of these is heavily influenced by the aforementioned ideas.
The next section, "The Ideas in Brief" introduces these ideas together. The next several sections discuss them further.
The Ideas in Brief
The first pair of ideas is "boundaries" and "independence" of societies. Utopian societies have well-defined and uncontested boundaries, and within those boundaries, they have independence. These two ideas lead us to the idea of "sovereignty", which then leads us to the idea of "jurisdiction". These four ideas fully determine the sphere of control of any Utopian society. The spheres of control of any two Utopian societies do not overlap. That means a Utopian society has no control over the choices made by another Utopian society.
The next two ideas are "agreement" and "cooperation". When Utopian societies need to accomplish something together, they will have to agree to do it and cooperate in doing it. When societies interact, they must agree on the specifics of those interactions. These interactions are possible due to agreements and cooperation between Utopian societies. Thus, it is important to know what those agreements are and the nature of the cooperation. These agreements and the resulting cooperation exist because participating societies derive benefit from them.
Throughout history, wars have been initiated to inflict harm for personal or national gain, but as societies strive to become utopian, such conflicts are expected to decline. However, harm is not only of the physical type; recent examples of economic harm inflicted by tariff wars related to foreign trade should be sufficient to demonstrate that there are other ways to inflict harm. Foreign trade, despite its benefits, has a dark past; it has contributed to colonization, exploitation, and even slavery. Thus, the system that facilitates foreign trade between utopias should have features that reduce or even eliminate the economic harm. Eliminating harm and facilitating caring should be on our minds when designing these systems.
Currently, different countries have both similarities and differences in how they operate. Utopian societies will have more in common than present-day societies, though differences will still exist. When designing systems for international interactions, one should strive to ensure that they are consistent in the similarities while also maintaining transparency about the differences.
Boundaries are intended to present hindrances to some activities across those boundaries. The presence of boundaries and resulting hindrances will be an impediment in the well-being of some citizens. There will be a natural tendency of those getting adversely affected by these boundaries and hindrances to ask for those hindrances to be eliminated. Utopian societies are primarily focused on the well-being of their citizens. In serving this purpose, Utopian societies will eliminate hindrances that serve no purpose towards the common good and also minimize other hindrances. Hindrances are usually reduced or eliminated through agreements and cooperation. However, there is a limit to reducing the hindrances because those hindrances exist to respect the notions of boundaries, independence, sovereignty and jurisdiction.
The only way to eliminate those remaining hindrances is for those societies to unite in some way and remove those boundaries. This is the idea of a "union". In present times, we have no more than a handful examples of such unions; The European Union and the European Monetary Union being the two primary examples. As we make progress towards building Utopia, we will have tighter unions which will culminate in complete mergers of societies.
Over time, with more unions and mergers, we will reach the stage of a "United World". Until then we will have international topics, their underlying concepts and systems, and we will need to design them well.
The next few sections discuss these ideas in greater detail.
Boundaries and Independence
Every society has physical boundaries. In Utopian societies, within those boundaries, citizens of a society have independence. With independence, we can do the following kinds of things in our society:
- We can set up social systems for the common good of citizens within the society.
- We can adopt a taxation model and set up infrastructure to collect taxes.
- We can make laws and regulations and expect them to be followed by members of the society.
- We can formally acknowledge our freedoms.
- We can grant ourselves rights and specify our responsibilities.
- We can allow or disallow entry to people from other societies into our society.
- We can allow or disallow our people to visit other societies.
With freedoms, within our own society, we can live anywhere, visit any part of our society, take up employment, start an enterprise, produce something, provide services, etc. The preceding list is just for illustrative purposes; there are many more things that we are free to do in our own society.
We can have rights in our society only because a majority of the citizens in our society agree that those are indeed "our rights" and are prepared to do "whatever it takes" to ensure that those rights are upheld.
When a society does whatever it takes to ensure and uphold those rights, it incurs expenses. These expenses are paid by collecting taxes. These taxes are one instance of our basic responsibilities. That the citizens have to follow the laws of their own society is the second instance of our basic responsibilities. Corresponding to this responsibility we get the right to make the laws as well.
Other societies cannot grant us rights within our society. Other societies are not responsible for the well-being of our citizens. Only our own society can give us what we call "rights". To collectively give us our rights, we collectively fulfill our responsibilities. Rights and responsibilities cannot exist without each other.
Without independence, citizens will have limited freedoms, inadequate rights and oppressive responsibilities. In present times, almost all countries claim independence. Independence alone is not enough to assure the well-being of all citizens of such independent countries. Independence has to be wielded effectively by citizens to address suboptimal conditions related to freedoms, rights, and responsibilities. Citizens must use this independence to advance their society toward Utopia.
Sovereignty and Jurisdiction
From a citizen's perspective, the extent of our power to make laws and give ourselves rights is limited to our own society. Within our society, we are the only decision makers. Within our society, we are the only enforcers of the laws that we make. That is sovereignty.
Our sovereignty defines the boundaries of our ability to impose laws and enforce them. When we feel that some law is broken by someone, we can legally judge them only within our society. That is the idea of jurisdiction.
Sovereignty is our ability to assert and enforce our collective opinions like "this is right" and "that is wrong".
Jurisdiction is our ability to classify parts of an event as consistent or inconsistent with our understanding of "right" and "wrong". Jurisdiction also implies our ability to recommend corrective actions for events that contains "wrongs" and to enforce those recommendations.
Our society has jurisdiction only over itself. Our society has no legal authority to pass judgment on matters in another society. Other societies hold no jurisdiction over our society's affairs.
We cannot give citizens of other societies what we think of as their rights in their own societies. We cannot take responsibility for citizens of other Utopian societies; those societies should be aware of their responsibilities, and they should be capable of fulfilling them. Correspondingly, we cannot expect other societies to help us in our responsibilities towards our own citizens. That is the nature of boundaries. That is the nature of sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Agreements and Cooperation
Our world is constantly developing. Our level of specialization, mechanization, and automation is continually increasing. This makes some people more skilled at certain tasks than others. This enables some to offer unique goods or services, or to provide standardized goods and services at a better price. They may carve out a niche or gain a competitive advantage. All this makes trade happen. In the context of "international topics", it makes foreign trade happen.
Foreign trade is just one example of international interactions. International Travel is another. There are many other examples.
International interactions cannot be random. We will have some intuitive expectations. This implies that there are some rules associated with those interactions.
Each society is sovereign and has jurisdiction only over what happens within its boundaries. So, who establishes rules that apply across borders? Societies; by agreements. Who is in charge of enforcing these rules? Societies; by cooperation and coordination.
Across society boundaries, we need to have conversations and discussions to eventually agree on shared models of allowed and disallowed, shared models of rights and responsibilities. Cross-border interactions require agreements and cooperation. We already are doing this when we engage in things like foreign trade, international travel, etc.
Since boundaries exist and definitions of rights and responsibilities vary, cross-border interactions differ from those within a single society. There will be restrictions and limits.
In the context of Building Utopia, Utopian Financial Infrastructure (UFI) and International Topics, there will be several instances of these interactions. For these interactions and their associated models and agreements, there will be differences between current non-utopian versions and the utopian versions.
Caring vs Harming
The history of human civilization is littered with many wars. Each one of these wars is initiated by a particular party. From the perspective of the party that initiates a war, the purpose of the war is to inflict physical harm on the other party in order to gain something.
When the world is full of countries that are striving to be ideal societies, striving to be a Utopia, such wars are not expected to happen. However, inflicting physical harm is not the only way harm can be inflicted. In the recent past, we have seen trade wars. A society, that initiates a trade war, attempts to inflict economic harm on its trading partners in order to gain something.
Foreign trade has been a significant source of harm. Foreign trade has a very long history; it has been practiced in the world for several millennia. In general, foreign trade provides plenty of benefits. However, foreign trade has a dark past; foreign trade was instrumental in conquest and colonization of large parts of the world. It was foreign trade that led to the subjugation of many nations, exploitation of several continents and wiping out indigenous people entirely in some cases. It played a key role in the establishment and perpetuation of slavery. With such a history, all nations of the world and all citizens of each country need to be careful in dealing with foreign trade. We want to eliminate all the bad aspects of foreign trade and keep all the good ones. We would like to minimize the harm that comes with foreign trade, and if possible, eliminate it entirely.
In general, societies can do whatever to benefit themselves. Utopian societies do so without inflicting harm to other societies or even the environment. Moreover, Utopian societies may also adopt a caring attitude towards other societies; not just a cooperative attitude. Utopian societies set up systems that facilitate international interactions while avoiding harm. Utopian societies set up systems that create easy opportunities to help and care for other people and other societies.
The Utopian Payment Model is an example of a society caring for the well-being of its own citizens. Another example of caring is when a person gives money to some other person as help; a charitable donation. Even today, societies demonstrate a caring attitude towards other societies, and this attitude is easily visible when some society faces a natural disaster, and in response other societies send various kinds of help.
Similarities and Differences
Currently, different countries have both similarities and differences in how they operate. Utopian societies will have more in common than present-day societies, though differences will still exist.
When designing systems for international interactions, one should strive to ensure that they are consistent in the similarities while also maintaining transparency about the differences.
Here are some examples to keep in mind when envisioning the systems that facilitate international interactions...
Just as one can travel to most places within one's society, it should be possible to visit other societies. However, since taxes are paid solely to one's society, one should not expect the same level of support from the Utopian Payment Model in other societies.
If one can donate money to charity within one's society, then it should be possible to be charitable to people in other societies. The "possibility" is the similarity; however, considering that it crosses boundaries, there may be some limits.
Just as we purchase items online at the retail level within our country, we should be able to do the same across borders. However, certain goods may not be available for export, so expecting to buy anything that a foreign seller offers is unrealistic. Additionally, both export and import tariffs may apply, and any tariff costs should be clearly visible rather than hidden in the item's price. Furthermore, the buyer should be able to view the monetary value of the price, tariffs and shipping costs in their own currency, alongside the foreign currency.
Within a society, individuals have the freedom to live anywhere inside its borders. However, expecting the same level of unrestricted movement across national boundaries would be unreasonable, as borders exist for a purpose. Nonetheless, as is the case today, some degree of immigration should remain possible.
Just as individuals can own stocks and ETFs within their own society, it should also be possible to do so across boundaries. However, the process may not be as unrestricted or straightforward, and certain limitations may apply. Additionally, since Utopian societies impose only wealth-based taxes, without taxes on capital gains or taxes on dividend income, it would be reasonable to anticipate similar taxation when investing in another Utopian society. However, not every type of investable instrument may be available for ownership across societal boundaries.
Unions
Within boundaries, we have the most freedoms and fewest restrictions. Across boundaries there are fewer freedoms, more restrictions, and tighter limits. Societies are constantly evolving their views on what is good and what constitutes the common good. As that continues, some of these restrictions, limits, and rules begin to seem baseless. They start seeming more like barriers, and eventually they get discarded. A few good examples of this are elimination of Octroi within most countries, the European Union, and the European Monetary Union.
The idea of "eliminating barriers" can work only when societies across a boundary seem nearly alike, when the citizens of those societies have a feeling of "belonging together".
A simple application of the thought of "we belong together" was enough to discard Octroi because it did not "feel right" for transport of goods across state boundaries within a country to be taxed. An advanced application of the thought of "we belong together" led to the formation of the European Union and the removal of trade barriers.
A much more advanced application of the thought of "we belong together" led to the formation of the European Monetary Union. The member countries of this union agreed to discard their local sovereign currencies, adopt a common currency and agree upon the principles, policies, rules and mechanisms for the common currency. Forming such a union demonstrates a serious commitment to the feeling of "we belong together". It is a big achievement.
From the perspective of monetary sovereignty, one should consider the European Monetary Union as a single society. Obviously it is not a single country. But, it is a single society formed from the union of several countries. These member countries collectively decide on admittance of other countries into their monetary union. The European Monetary Union could be considered as one more step towards building Utopia for these countries.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom decided to disentangle itself from the European Union. Brexit resulted from disagreements and a reduced feeling of "we belong together". Perhaps the United Kingdom entered into the European Union prematurely. Whatever the reasons, Brexit is not an impediment for the United Kingdom in achieving its Utopia. The United Kingdom is a monetary sovereign society. It has the independence to decide for the common good of its citizens and it will conduct its interactions with European countries with newly agreed terms.
Two Utopian societies may have differences in the laws and policy parameters within their boundaries, but they can always agree upon some rules for their international interactions.
United World
Discussions of ideas like "eliminating barriers", "we belong together", and "Monetary Unions" leads us to the question: what preconditions must be met for two neighboring countries to decide to merge and call themselves a single country - not just a monetary union? This question is complicated to answer and we will discuss it in a future version of this book.
We could call such a union a "complete union of societies". These kinds of complete unions will happen. At present, this may seem a bit hard to believe, especially since over the past century we have seen many "exits", "partitions" and "separations".
One of the major milestones in the path to building Utopia is a United World. The United World is the state in which we dissolve all boundaries and humanity will exist on Earth as a single society. The United World is just a milestone; it is not the end of building Utopia; it is a major milestone though.
Before we can get to a United World, we will go through a process of willingly consolidating several societies and countries into larger societies and countries. In this process, due to disagreements, some larger societies and countries may break apart into independent societies and countries. This is part of the process. It is a process of trying out different scenarios and discovering better scenarios. It is a process of distinguishing between what is more important and what is less important.
Eventually we will get there. Eventually we will reach the milestone of a United World. No one knows how long that will take.
Until then, we will have countries, and each one of these countries will seek to maximize the good of its citizens. We will have international interactions, and the UFIs of all these countries will agree upon various mechanisms for these international interactions.