I was imagining a world that existed like this:
Each person’s wealth – that is gained from ‘earning a living’ – is converted into tokens redeemable only by the ‘earner’ in an attempt to demonstrate who has what in this world. You carry around a bag with your tokens in it, showing how ‘valuable’ you are as a community asset. Then – surprise, surprise – the air you breathe becomes costly. You have to insert tokens into a local ‘breathing machine’ in order to have fresh air pumped – in a puff – into the atmosphere so that all living things can draw breath. At first there are communal machines – anyone can put tokens in to make sure that we can all breathe. Everyone does so with enthusiasm. We all have tokens, well, hopefully we have all earned a few, and we use them as is necessary. Those with tokens put them willingly in – in a fairly democratic fashion, no doubt. I put one – you put one. Etc.
Then the majority starts to run short of tokens. The air is getting tight, difficult to breathe. Like molasses. Those with big bags of tokens begin to become selfish. They resent putting extra tokens into the ‘breathing machine’ – despite the fact that they have plenty extra – when there are others that no longer ‘contribute’ to the air everyone breathes. The ones with tokens believe the ones without tokens should suffocate. They should die because they did not earn enough tokens to keep them alive. They believe this, despite the fact that they – and those ‘lazy time-wasters’ – share the same breathing space. The point is: without the ‘time-wasters’ – the dreamers, the believers, the lovers – the elite and their breathing would not even be a problem that we contemplate on this planet.
Then – considering all – I came to the conclusion that human beings, being what they are, would never have condoned the manufacture of communal ‘breathing machines’. The capitalist mindset that manipulates the actions of the too-wealthy elite – those ‘with’ money – would have ensured at the outset that only individual ‘breathing machines’ were made, those that were built to the individual’s specifications. I am quite certain that those with enough tokens and their bespoke ‘breathing machines’ would be quite happy to watch with a ‘dejected’ sigh those without tokens who fall by the roadside and expire. I mean – if you are wealthy and well-connected you cannot be expected to save every piece of crap lying around on the planet, can you?
