Utopian Goals

The highest level goal of an ideal society is to ensure the well-being of all its citizens. This chapter expands this highest level goal to three high-level goal categories, and then outlines the systems that will fulfill those goals. The categories are: Citizen Controlled Democracy, Fair Monetary System, and Social Welfare System.

The Goals

The purpose of an ideal society is to give each human a very good opportunity to utilize what nature gives us and live a good life. For that to happen, every citizen must be doing well in life as per the socially accepted norms of the meaning of "well-being". That is, ensuring the well-being of all citizens is the highest level goal for Utopia.

We have discussed many kinds of monetary unfairness. Eliminating them is an obvious high-level goal. A better perspective is: Establish a fair monetary system. Fairness is important, as that is the only way citizens can feel good about the society they live in. A fair society can eliminate problems and approach the ideal; approach a Utopia. Desiring fairness is broader in scope. Desiring fairness focuses on the positive.

We have discussed that an ideal society cannot satisfy all the needs and wants of its citizens. Thus, if the needs and wants of the citizens have to be satisfied, then citizens will have to play a central role in it. That is, citizens will have to be independent and self-sufficient for most of their lives. We are not born with the knowledge of how to do it. So, the society needs to establish social systems that continuously strive to assist citizens in becoming independent and self-sufficient.

There is one more perspective for independence and self-sufficiency of citizens. Societies have fought for self-rule and self-determination and obtained it. Why go through all those fights for freedom, independence and self-rule if we are not aiming for something greater? Such as, enabling citizens to be independent and self-sufficient for most of their lives.

Thus, making citizens independent and self-sufficient is also a high-level goal.

In the context of these two high level goals, we will come up with ideas, concepts and systems. The systems that we design will need controls; more specifically, democratic controls. Establishing these controls is also a high-level goal.

Thus, the high-level goals are:

Establish sufficient control in our democratic systems.
Establish a fair monetary system.
Establish social systems that continuously strive to make citizens independent and self-sufficient.

When we accomplish these goals, that is, when we establish these systems, we will begin converting our society into an ideal society. On the first day that these systems are established, our society will not be ideal, it will gradually and over time get closer and closer to the ideal. Establishing these systems will give us a very good chance of living in Utopia; there is more to a Utopia than just these systems.

The systems that fulfill these goals can be broadly placed in the following three categories:

Citizen Controlled Democracy
Fair Monetary System
Core Social Welfare System

Citizen Controlled Democracy

Democracy is critical to convert any society into an ideal society. Without democracy, there can be no Utopia.

All over the world, we have tried many forms of governance and administration. Many societies are democratic. Citizens elect their representatives who form the government and this government manages the affairs of the society. So far, representative democracy seems to be the best option. And yet, we have numerous problems.

Currently, citizens are at the mercy of whatever democratic systems that have been built over the ages. The one thing that is lacking in all these systems is that citizens have hardly any control over what should and should not happen in their own society and in their own country.

The real problem in any form of government that we have tried so far is that the decision makers and the citizens have been different people. Their agendas are different. The only way to eliminate this problem is for citizens to have a significantly higher level of control over the matters of society and country.

We can think all we want about how to solve problems. We can set whatever goals we think are worthy. But if we cannot control what our society does, it is of no value. We, the citizens, still need appropriate control over our society to implement systems that can help achieve these goals. Having control is the whole point of self-rule and self-determination.

There will be some concerns that citizens may not have sufficient knowledge to exercise control over their society. It is easy to discount other people's ability to make wise decisions. But in a society, citizens are all we have, and the society is for the benefit of the citizens, and their average opinion is representative of all citizens. The wisdom of the totality of the population should not be underestimated or discounted.

To establish an ideal society, we need democracy and sufficient control within it.

Once we have sufficient control over our own democracy, we can actually start making appropriate changes.

Most of the democratic societies in present-day are representative democracies. Some democracies give additional control to citizens in the form of voting on policy setting referendums. We will expand this idea significantly. This will tilt the flavor of democracy away from "representative controlled" and towards "citizen controlled".

Representatives will still continue to exist. The idea that citizens can delegate some decisions to their representatives is very useful; but citizens need the ability to override those decisions. We will design and implement new systems with built-in controls, and representatives will perform duties consistent with the design of all these new systems. The authority and power of these representatives will be much different than its current form. More importantly, the representatives will have more time to be the thought leaders.

On what basis can one establish a citizen controlled democracy? What gives citizens the authority to control their society?

The key idea is as follows: Citizens have the ultimate authority in deciding the matters of the society because citizens are equal owners of the society.

With this authority, citizens can and should be the lawmakers.

We will need to discuss the relationship between citizens and their government.

We will need a tool by which citizens can exert their control over the systems within the society. The tool is called "policy parameters".

Fair Monetary System

We have discussed many examples of monetary unfairness in our present-day societies in the chapter "Reasons for the Rich Getting Richer". All of them need to be dealt with. In that chapter, we did not broach the topic of wealth redistribution. However, wealth redistribution is an important component of setting up a fair monetary system.

The following five subsystems are the basis of a fair monetary system:

Wealth Redistribution
Wealth Based Taxes
Fiscal Policy
Monetary Policy
Foreign Trade

For each one of these subsystems, we need to discuss the following:

What is it?
Why is it necessary?
How to implement it?

With these systems implemented, the following problems in present-day societies can be eliminated:

We will put an end to the poor getting poorer. There will be a lower-bound to how poor a citizen can get.
We will put an end to the rich getting inordinately richer. The wealth distribution will get closer to a normal distribution. Currently, the distribution is heavily tilted towards the rich.
We will stop burdening our future generations with debt.
We will contain asset price bubbles and asset price crashes.
We will tackle inflation and deflation.
We will nudge foreign trade towards a balanced state fairly. This will make trade wars unnecessary.

Setting up a fair monetary system is not the same as social welfare. One can visualize a society that has a fair monetary system, but does not have social welfare, and such a society will be better than a society that has an unfair monetary system. A social welfare system in the presence of an unfair monetary system is just covering up for the unfairness in the monetary system and merely ensuring survival for the most poor.

There are many responsibilities of a society that can be considered as "core". This book focuses on the responsibilities that are in the realm of "social welfare". It does not discuss other equally important core responsibilities to any significant extent, either because they are more-or-less well implemented or because they need to be re-evaluated in the context of a fair monetary system and the core "social welfare" responsibilities of the society. Some examples of core social responsibilities that are not discussed are: national defense, internal law and order, fire-fighting, etc.

So, let us discuss the topic of "social welfare".

There is a line of thought that goes as follows: "Successful people create success solely by their own effort. We all live in the same society and hence we all have the same opportunities for succeeding and hence when a person succeeds, that success is solely his or hers. Similarly, when a person encounters failure, that failure also is solely his or her failure." This line of thought is misguided and wrong. Here is the reason...

A single person alone on a planet would have a miserable and short life. People can be immensely successful only if they are living in a society that is conducive for that sort of success. We are metaphorically standing on the shoulders of giants; if we can see far, it is because of this advantage. The same metaphor applies to success.

The success of an individual depends on the person, the society and luck.

Success partially depends on society, and so does failure. So, when a society helps some people succeed, then the same society should provide adequate help to those who experience failures and its economic consequences. Society cannot ensure that everyone will succeed in what they wish to accomplish, but it can mitigate the ill-effects of adversities and failures; this mitigation is necessary for the well-being of all citizens.

Society has a critical role to play in achieving the well-being of all its citizens.

Once a society decides that it would make the well-being of all citizens as its topmost priority and also decides to commit its resources to accomplishing such a goal, we all have a good chance that we can change whatever needs to be changed in our society to make it possible for everyone to have a good life.

Society is made of humans and hence whatever good we desire from our society, we desire it from our fellow citizens. What we desire from others, we ought to be willing to give it to others as well.

Any society should continuously endeavor to maintain the current good that it has, increase the amount of good that it can have and reduce the amount of bad that it has. Thus, the things that are good will be retained, some things may need to be enhanced, and some things may need to be discarded.

Equally important is the fact that citizens play a central role in their own well-being and success.

Every citizen has needs and wants. A need is that thing which when not satisfied causes harm, and a want is that thing which when not satisfied causes only disappointment. When a person is independent and self-sufficient, then this person can take care of his or her own needs. When a society is independent and self-sufficient, it can take care of all its needs.

Citizens of society should endeavor to be independent and self-sufficient. An ideal society expects every independent and self-sufficient citizen to take care of all his or her normal needs. Society itself should strive to be independent and self-sufficient.

Even today, a significant majority of citizens are interested in independence and self-sufficiency. For example, when citizens choose to spend several years obtaining higher education, they do so because they want to have knowledge and skills that others may find useful, and hence, they can offer to use that knowledge and skills in return for wages or salary. Most citizens are of the opinion that finding regular employment is a means to independence and self-sufficiency.

The true test of independence and self-sufficiency of citizens is that they are able to satisfy their needs and wants by themselves, either by taking effort in satisfying them or by paying to procure them.

Society should consider "making citizens independent and self-sufficient" as a "common good", accept it as a responsibility, and do whatever it takes to fulfill that responsibility.

Society should create infrastructure that enables its citizens to be independent and self-sufficient. Society should assist those citizens that need help in being independent and self-sufficient. In striving to achieve independence and self-sufficiency for all, we should be fair to everyone.

In those things that society provides monetary help, society should provide greater or lesser help to all citizens, depending on the severity of their lack of wealth. In this way, the fairness of the given help or assistance is not easily open for doubt.

The Utopian Payment Model and Social Employment are the two systems by which a society fulfills its objective of making citizens independent and self-sufficient. The first one deals with needs and the second one deals with wants. The first one ensures that all citizens can satisfy their essential needs, and the second one ensures that citizens can find employment so that they can satisfy their wants.

The idea of the Utopian Payment Model is as follows:

People pay for their routine needs in the form of money and using a variety of payment models. Some of these needs are essential. Currently, there are some predominantly used payment models, and they have inadequacies. Some of these payment models are currently implemented by our society (that is, government by proxy).

Currently, many people are poor. Even in Utopia, people can still be poor for various reasons. The real need of an ideal society is to ensure that everyone can satisfy their essential needs. People can satisfy their needs if they have money to go and buy the products and services. Some people may be poor, and hence, either they are unable to satisfy their essential needs, or they are able to satisfy them only to a limited extent. Society should be willing to help such people, and to the extent the help is needed.

When society provides help to its citizens, that help should be in terms of helping pay for the essential needs; and only to the extent that the help is needed as per the norms associated with that kind of need. For this we need a new system of payment and a new payment model; the Utopian Payment Model.

The idea of Social Employment is as follows:

While it is good to be helpful when people are in need, it is better to be independent and self-sufficient. It is better if people can satisfy their own needs and wants. For that they need to be able to earn their own living, and for that they need employment. That is, it is desirable for society to have full employment.

Currently, we have an unemployment problem. Currently, a person is unemployed because he or she cannot find work at a for-profit organization, and that is primarily because he or she cannot compete with the existing levels of mechanization and automation. While there are many other contributing factors, mechanization and automation are the main.

From a social perspective, it is unwise to prevent mechanization and automation as it infringes on people's freedoms; it hinders technological progress.

Society needs to recognize that the unemployment problem is not a personal problem, but a social problem. Society should realize that it is the responsibility of the society to ensure full employment; it is a common good.

Society should be prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure full employment. Thus, we need to ensure that everyone who wants employment can find some form of employment.

The key to solving the unemployment problem is the observation that there are some kinds of work that are so important that we ask people to volunteer to do it, and yet we do not pay them to do the work. The observation is that the work is important, but it is not for profit. It is for some social good. We need to recognize this kind of work as worthy of being paid instead of asking such work for free, enable paying for it socially, and use the opportunity presented by these kinds of work.

We create a new kind of employment called "Social Employment". With the introduction of social employment, all current forms of paid employment are called "Regular Employment". Anyone who does not find regular employment can take up social employment. All employees who take up this kind of employment are called social employees, and they all earn at the same wage rate. This wage rate is set by citizens using a policy parameter. The wages for social employees are paid by the society. That is, these wages are funded through taxes.

We allow for-profit enterprises to hire such social employees; up to a certain limit. We create a new kind of organization called "public not-for-profit organization". These organizations must employ only social employees, and they can do any socially important work. Anyone can take up social employment; either with a for-profit organization or with a public not-for-profit organization. We also establish standardized employment policies for both regular employment and social employment. These policies maintain a distinction between regular employment by specifying a minimum wage for regular employment and keeping all other characteristics almost the same. Citizens decide the minimum wages for regular employment as well as for social employment, and hence can tip the policy in favor of one over the other.

Since there is always some socially important work that needs to be done, there will always be social employment. The profit motive does not need to be the sole basis for employment. This solves the unemployment problem and with it the poverty problem. This reduces a citizen's need to take help from the Utopian Payment Model. This enables citizens to get closer to being independent and self-sufficient.

Relationships Between Society and Citizens

Citizens and their Society engage in a simultaneous dual relationship. To clarify, they have two very different relationships with each other, and both these relationships exist at the same time. To clarify further, we are not discussing the relationship between citizens and their government.

In the first relationship, citizens are the owners of their society. Citizens are like investors in an organization called society. Each citizen is a part owner of this organization. Each citizen owns a part exactly equal to any other citizen. As owners, citizens make decisions about what this organization should do, they get to vote, and all other implications of ownership.

In the second relationship, the society is like a parent to its children; citizens are the children. Society takes care of its children, nurtures them, fairly distributes chores and responsibilities among them, expects them to eventually grow up and be responsible for themselves, and pays more attention to those who need it more. As a parent, society carefully and fairly acknowledges the child that does well, and sternly deals with the child that "misbehaves".

When considering a society, all citizens have exactly the same voting power in their society.

When considering a publicly or privately owned organization, all investors have voting power, proportional to their ownership share, in that organization.

For almost all people, the likelihood of that person influencing the decisions of their society is several times higher than the likelihood of that person influencing the decisions of an organization, of which the person is a part owner.

The likelihood of a person influencing any organization, that they are not an owner of, is significantly less than that person's influencing power over the organizations that they partly own.

Thus, citizens have a significantly higher chance of success at influencing their society. The rewards of such a successful influence are not just money, but a better society. So, citizens are better off using whatever little time they have, to influence the decisions of their society.

The two relationships between citizens and their society are locked in a mutual feedback loop. If citizens take fair and caring decisions, their society becomes a fair and caring parent. If citizens take unfair and uncaring decisions, their society becomes an unfair and uncaring parent.

In personal life, children don't get to influence how fair and caring their parents are. They have to live with the parents they get. Some children get good parents, some get bad, and some get the worst of them all.

In social life, the situation is much better. Citizens have an influence over their societies. They can mold their societies to be fair and caring towards all their citizens.

We can have an ideal society if we want it, and if we are willing to do our part in making it happen.

About This Series of Books

The highest level goal of an ideal society, a Utopia, is to ensure the well-being of all its citizens. The primary means to that goal are Fair Monetary Systems and Social Welfare Systems. Citizen controlled democracy is the means to build these Fair Monetary Systems and Social Welfare Systems. Hence, discussing the Fair Monetary Systems and Social Welfare Systems takes precedence over discussing the way a Citizen Controlled Democracy works.

Describing all aspects of an ideal society, that bring the Utopian Goals to fruition, is not possible in a single book of about 250 pages. This is a job for a series of books.

This book, Building Utopia, is the first book in this series of books. It focuses on the Fair Monetary System and Social Welfare System. Just like money can't buy happiness, but it is necessary; similarly, a fair monetary system is necessary for an ideal society. Motivation, determination and action are required to make one's life better, but sometimes one also needs help from others. All societies have some form of social welfare systems. The social welfare system of an ideal society gives help to whoever needs it, and to the extent the help is needed.

The second book, Utopian Financial Infrastructure, introduces and describes a new financial infrastructure that is necessary to support and implement the money and wealth related ideas, concepts and systems mentioned in Building Utopia. It also introduces other systems not mentioned in Building Utopia, for example, Collective Credit and Utopian Mortgage.

The third book, Utopian Democracy, has not yet been written. It will discuss the decision-making infrastructure necessary for an ideal society, and that includes a discussion about the control that citizens have over their society. Some examples of the topics included in this book are: mechanisms of making laws, voting, mechanisms of conducting referendums, mechanisms of giving directives to our government, setting policy parameters, etc.

There are other books planned as well, and all of them are awaiting a suitable opportunity for writing. All of these books will be available on pravindamle.com.

Since everything cannot be written in about 250 pages, Building Utopia includes only the most fundamental ideas that an ideal society must have. Every other piece of content is either supplementary or supporting. The discussion of such topics needs to be delegated to other books. Other books in this series contain a detailed discussion of such supporting or supplementary materials.

Thus, Building Utopia discusses the key ideas of Citizen Controlled Democracy in a single chapter; because these key ideas are necessary for the discussion in this book. A detailed conceptual and implementation description of these key ideas and others will be in the Utopian Democracy book. In this book, we will refer to that book as the "UD Book".

Similarly, Building Utopia delegates the discussion about the detailed accounting and implementation of money and wealth related topics to the Utopian Financial Infrastructure book. In this book, we will refer to that book as the "UFI Book".

In Utopian literature, one can easily find the term "Good Life". This book series focuses on "well-being". Why?

In any kind of society, and for every individual, the ultimate desire is to lead a good life.

Good Life is not the same as well-being. Good Life is more abstract than well-being. Well-being is more tangible and more measurable than Good Life. A Good Life is an individual's vision for oneself in their peculiar context. Well-being is open for social discussion and consensus. A society can set for itself "ensuring the well-being of all citizens" as its highest level goal. Leading a good life, in whatever society one exists, is a personal goal and choice.

Every kind of society provides a context in which a good life can be visualized and lived. Thus, a good life can be visualized in an ideal society; that is, a society that does its utmost to ensure the well-being of all its citizens. A good life in a Utopia, an ideal society, will be vastly different from a good life in present-day societies.