Jul. 08, 2002 - 21:25 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Inside

Recirculating sometimes helps and other times just stirs things up. But that is what my mind seems to do at times. For instance tonight.

My ideas are laughed at and pooh poohed. Cloud castle idealism and all that rot. But in essence I think some of my ideas are commonsense and good.

Most of them are stated in an oversimplified mode. For instance. In my mind, to begin with starting with a basic tenet.

Every person born should be guaranteed food, warmth, cooling, clothing and shelter, medical care and Rx medicine, and a means of transportation.

Simple ? No, very complicated. First a method of oversight and qualifying some people to do the overseeing.

Then I think it should be established that for one not doing anything productive but not harming anyone, the food should be of the simplest kind taken with water, warmth, cooling enough and shelter should be in spartan plain barracks. Clothing ? Work clothing of the plainest kind. Medical care for those who won't work should bar elective medical procedures and cosmetic actions. Medicine for ailing people should be available to all as should be hospital care. Transportation should, for the non workers and workers doing little, should I think, be mass transit over a network of lines.

Then would come the determination of the rewards for working, exhibited ingenuity, effort put forth and danger overcome while working . All to be judged by how much the aforesaid work benefitted humanity as a whole.

Then along in there would come the decision of whether any man should be enabled to build a many roomed, gilded mansion just because he is smart, works hard, and comes up with great ideas, overcomes various dangers and pitfalls. Of course that person is of great value to society but the question of how much should anyone be allowed to be remunerated comes up.

After all, how many beds does a person need to use in a night ? With a few more allowed for guests. How many domiciles should a person have ? A modest one and a cabin in the hills for recreation ?

How hard would a person have to work, how much should one benefit humanity to be able to buy an automobile ? How much more would his actual contribution to our welfare have to be for him to have a costly Mercedes, a finer house, nicer furniture and all the other amenities of the good life ?

Okay, now lets say that all that has been figured out and formulas established and oversight supposedly taken care of. How long before man's nature would subvert the whole thing, put homeless on the street again, sick go without medical aid and letting people do more or less slave labor ? I honestly don't know if such a scheme could ever work here -- but oh I wish it could.

Its dark in here and so comes the sophomoric questions when I am navel gazing from the Inside . . . . . . .

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