Sunday, August 23, 2009

A just society

I have heard a lot of noises about people not getting enough opportunities, someone getting an edge due to his/her parentage, division of society based on caste and religion. I hereby proposed a different setting of a society where everyone eats what (s)he earns.

1) Every kid - no matter what so ever - is taken into a state-run residential school. This school is funded by the taxpayer, and has caretakers besides teachers and support staff as employees.

2) Every kid goes to a fully funded (by the taxpayer, again) college. The entrance to which is by a test. The discipline of study is chosen by the kid him/her self.

3) Everyone works for a living. and all the money accessible to him/her is that what the person and his/her spouse has earned.

4) Invalids, and too-old-to-work people are taken care of by the society.

5) All the money after the death of the couple goes to the society. The only inheritance of money is after the demise of a spouse, it goes to the other person.

I wonder why such a society has not been institutionalized yet.

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14 comments:

kay gee said...

don't wonder! welcome to the real word where the implementation of all these points, which are easier said than done, is done by humans. at the risk of sounding cynical, i'd that humans are always bound to be distracted by material needs, power and procrastination, to name a few, which are a bane for good implementation.
take for example your second point, if the discipline could be chosen the student, the demand would exceed supply of faculty and resources.
and, if all schools were to be state-run, the standard of education will plummet. i wonder how much of the taxpayers' money would actually reach to benefit the students.
also, imagine how difficult it is to make sure that after the death of a couple the money goes to the society. it's better for the money to reach their than to reach the society through bureaucracy.

the sad part is that even i am a part of the group of people who make noises and have no fool-proof solutions.

Apurv said...

I agree with Kay Gee. What you are demanding is sort of an Utopian world, which quite evidently cannot be institutionalized in this era of corruption and bureaucracy!

Gandhi said...

and what do we do about friends with an edge in all matters related to courting the opposite sex..quite aptly you chose to ignore it..

Ankit Ashok said...

@ Kaygee, Apurv :

I know that its difficult to implement it, but shouldn't we try?

Ankit Ashok said...

@ Tool :

A just society should be organized to reward a person's inherent talent.

So it makes perfect sense for people to fend for themselves.

Lets free market economics dictate terms. Everyone gets what (s)he is capable of.

Rajendra Joish said...

The system you propose is there in one country as far as I know and my humanities prof mentioned in 8th sem. It's China!

loop said...

Not talking about a socialist state. Are we ?
And don't you think the concepts of family (and thus parenting) are a lot cultural than political ? How do you propose to address that?

Also, I don't think there's anything called "inherent talent". People are all born same (no evidence to suggest otherwise). All talent is acquired.

kay gee said...

@ ankit

its seems improbable and impossible. period.

@ tool

you were trying to be sarcastic. no?

@ indira

i beg to differ. people ain't born same. skills are acquired, not talent. else, that would contradict the defintion of 'talent'

kay gee said...

infact, 'inherent talent' is a tautology because 'talent' is necessarily 'inherent'

Ankit Ashok said...

@ Joish:

I think I could not convey my ideas properly. When I say the child is taken into the state's custody, I mean totally. The child has not contact with, and is oblivious to his/her biological parents.

This, is NOT the case in China.

Ankit Ashok said...

@ Indira :

The state does not dictate the terms of employment, neither does it talk about the labor emancipation.

The state takes in just one extra duty over and above that of government - it teaches and takes care of every kid till (s)he finishes her/his college.

And the thing about family being a cultural concept is true, and that statement itself gives an insight to a solution. If the state, by fiat, makes family a "couple" concept where the kids never become a part of the family, the next generation would never know of a thing such as family and Whola ! the culture has changed!

And I think the genes do dictate the aptitude for a particular thing, so ya I believe talent is inherent.

Ankit Ashok said...

@ Kaygee :

Why do you think Tool is being sarcastic? He could have been serious as well, right?

Unknown said...

yaar , I don't think, this will work...
there should be freedom of choice.

its not about difficulty in implementation of the above.. but about the acceptance of this by us.

it would be again a communist society

Chaitanya Chintaluri said...

this is actually close to what happens in china.