The News From Poughkeepsie - Day 12

May 3rd, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

When I was a kid and I imagined a world full of peace and free of disease, all i could do was think of the problems that would arise (I was a cheerful little girl). How many scientists and soldiers would that put out of jobs? I am no economist, but I do wonder how the economy would flounder in a utopia.

‘Course, “utopia” implies that everything is glorious, and clearly a struggling economy with a bunch of out-of-work soldiers would not be a utopia. But we all envision world peace as a glorious thing, and I have a hunch it would just bring new problems.

(Note - you all know I’m a bleeding heart liberal who would LOVE to see the end of war. I don’t want the comments to turn into a pro/anti war debate; that’s not the point. The point is how the world would change when the problems we have today get fixed? Don’t want to do war? How about crime? Disease? Illegal drugs?)

The News From Poughkeepsie is a daily blog post featuring an idea for you to take and do with what you will. Read more about it here. This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You can take this idea, change it, make something new, and even make money off of it. All I ask is if you create something - anything! - that this post inspired you to make, please link back here.

There Are 7 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Colin Francis Barnes on 3 May 2008:

    I’ve often thought the same thing, our whole society is propped up by what conceive as problems. If we suddenly took those problems away society and the economy would crumble, I could perceive a mad max style grab for power.

    Technology specifically would change dramatically, so much of our tech comes from advanced weapons research, so maybe there would be emphasis on space technology instead.

    However; in a ready made utopia, I think there would be different problems, off the top of my head i’m thinking; group dynamics, politics, struggles for influence and even contentious religious clashes (even more so than now).

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  3. Comment by Nobilis on 3 May 2008:

    Talk about social science fiction.

    The results would probably depend on the method.

    The most interesting, I think, is if we simply grow out of it. If the cost of war is too high, for both the winner AND the loser, then it’s in the best interests of everyone to get OTHER people to fight.

    As a result, you’d get a cold war, a shadow war, fought with diplomats and spies, each trying to get their neighbors and trade rivals to go to war with each other, so they can reap the benefits.

  4. Comment by edward on 3 May 2008:

    so, i guess if the problems that lead to military conflict went away overnight, that would absolutely create a whole new set of problems for industrialized nations with large paid militaries (not to mention freelancers). thousands to maybe hundreds of thousands having to be bled back into the workforce, whole segments of the economy having to shift their business models. its a cool idea!

  5. Comment by Mark Maris on 13 May 2008:

    How about the anti-hero point-of-view:

    How would you do [violence/drugs/war/etc] if it were really IMPOSSIBLE to do it (for whatever reason, ala deus-ex-machina). And you really wanted to, but you couldn’t. Ever.

    What would such a character resort to?

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  7. Pingback by What Now? and thoughts on being a Christian Writer « Scribbling Words on 21 July 2008:

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