Table of Contents
Introduction
Here is another quick post answering questions from someone on Facebook who is asking the age old questions about a Resource Based Economy (RBE) that are typically being asked of those who are just beginning their journey into RBE, and need to know just how the hell this thing is going to work. These are good questions and I am going to try to answer them in this post. So, here we go!
Most of these questions are basically answered in these posts of mine:
- The Cancer of Capitalism
- Capitalism and Resource Based Economies Q&A from Facebook (Dec 2020)
- Productivity and Motivation?
- How will a Resource Based Economy work?
- Human Nature, Competition, Employment, and Housing
- How might a Resource Based Economy playout, if it ever did?
I. The Questions
Below is his full quote from a Facebook group:
Someone explain who decides who gets the beachfront, the penthouse, the luxury living quarters in this system.
Someone tell me who decides why some people will get the better stuff while everyone else gets stuck in shitty apartments.
And how does who does what job get determined? I keep telling y’all I’m not cleaning the loo, regardless of anything. And you can’t make me. And I’m not alone.
Not everyone can have a Corvette or a $90K truck or a Maserati. Who decides what kind of car you get to drive? Or what toys you can have?
You think everyone is going to build luxury items for everyone else? Do you have any idea what it takes to craft some of these things?
What if Joe wants to just sit around and paint shitty pictures that no one likes, all day. He claims he should be allowed to do that as his contribution because Sarah does it. Except Sarah’s art is exquisite and everyone wants one of her creations.
If I write stories that would sell like Stephen King novels and Mike wants to write too but he pens our drivel that no one wants to read, who determines that Mike has to do something else with his time that is of more value to society?
II. The Answers
A. Who gets the beachfront, the penthouse, the luxury living quarters?
Someone explain who decides who gets the beachfront, the penthouse, the luxury living quarters in this system.
First, ALL living spaces will effectively be luxury to an extent (at least as compared to today’s world). But, luxury as far as completely wasteful of resources – like mansions and penthouses are – will not exist because they violate equity and sustainability.
Those high demand locations such as beachfront housing will be setup in one of 2 ways:
- Some may get to live there because they were there first. I imagine that there will be some properties that will be setup as permanent residences so as to build a community.
- However, most of such highly desirable locations will be setup through a waiting list or lottery type system where each person will be able to stay there for like a few weeks, a month, 6 months, or a year, or something like that, so that one person cannot monopolize access to such amazing locations. Equity is important.
B. Who decides who gets the good stuff?
Someone tell me who decides why some people will get the better stuff while everyone else gets stuck in shitty apartments.
Differing levels of quality of resources is a result of the horrors of capitalism’s drive for maximizing profit through planned obsolescence, and exploitation of inequality, all of which will NOT exist in a Resource Based Economy, because that is so wasteful and it is harmful. A RBE will concentrate on creating the highest quality resources that we are capable of creating sustainably. Everyone will have the same access to the same high quality resources for the most part.
“To each according to what we can equitably provide.“
Another point to keep in mind that a RBE will concentrate on a sharing economy, so everyone will not need one of everything like we do today, which will greatly reduce wasteful production and allow for higher quality items. If they need something they can reserve it with the local Resource Sharing Center for as long as they need it.
Shitty apartments will not exist.
C. Who decides who does the shit work?
And how does who does what job get determined? I keep telling y’all I’m not cleaning the loo, regardless of anything. And you can’t make me. And I’m not alone.
When we are full into a Resource Based Economy such “shitty” jobs will be automated away to the fullest extent possible, because no one will want to do them, and because of the negative biopsychosocial effects of such horrible work.
Then, the core of all cities will be education and research centers where each person will be highly educated. A byproduct of a highly educated society which has great access to resources will be people wanting to work in the field they are passionate about.
D. Who decides who gets the Maserati?
“Not everyone can have a Corvette or a $90K truck or a Maserati. Who decides what kind of car you get to drive? Or what toys you can have?”
Individually owned cars (and their capitalistic brands) will not exist, because individual ownership is massively wasteful of resources. A Resource Based Economy will concentrate on a centralized mass transportation system with cities redesigned from the ground up with that in mind. Cars in a form will exist, but they will be apart of the centralized mass transportation system.
If you need to go somewhere you will access your RBE Life app to request transportation and it will reserve and plan out your trip, and your transportation will arrive as needed, which will be used and shared by the rest of society.
E. Master Artisans Don’t Work for Free!!!
“You think everyone is going to build luxury items for everyone else? Do you have any idea what it takes to craft some of these things?”
First, most everything created will be of the highest quality as we can sustainably produce through automation to prevent wasting resources, and people will have access to these items through the Resource Sharing Centers.
Second, people will still craft things because that is what they enjoy doing. So, a person could spend their time doing just that, creating masterfully crafted items – 1 item a year – because this is what they are passionate about doing, and such masterfully crafted items will be the ultimate expression of their craft.
These master artisans will also be teaching classes and/or have apprentices so that their skills will not be lost. I expect, much like YouTube or Twitch, that their process will be livestreamed and recorded for posterity so people can learn from them and so we do not completely lose their skills. The results of their works can then either be given away through a lottery or reservation system or, preferably, they can be given to Resource Sharing Centers.
F. Does a shitty artist have the same quality of life as a professional artist?
What if Joe wants to just sit around and paint shitty pictures that no one likes, all day. He claims he should be allowed to do that as his contribution because Sarah does it. Except Sarah’s art is exquisite and everyone wants one of her creations.
If I write stories that would sell like Stephen King novels and Mike wants to write too but he pens our drivel that no one wants to read, who determines that Mike has to do something else with his time that is of more value to society?
First, contributions are NOT required. If you want to vacation your whole life away you can do that, and we should all be celebrating this potential, which would be the first time in history that this would be possible.
You are falling prey to the capitalist idea that a person’s individual value to society is determined by what they can produce that can be exploited for profit, which is the thinking that created the world we have today. Each person can do whatever they want because we will work towards automating all manual labor. In order to create a better world we have to understand that each person’s life is valuable to society just because they exist.
Also, keep in mind that Sarah started out creating shitty works too. Everyone is a beginner when they first start. And ya know what? Sarah is creating videos of her creative and technical process, as well as teaches classes several times a month; and Joe is trying to learn from her so that some day he can do the same. Teaching others will be a powerful effect of people having the time to learn what they are passionate about. They will want to teach others how to do it too.
