"'Of course, there's no longer any pretense at equal sharing. If we tried that, everybody would be down on Lowlevel. Instead, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.'" (p. 18)
Questions And Comments
Technological advances should move society closer to "equal sharing" but the premise here is that the world population is growing uncontrollably so why is that happening?
I agree that, in a situation where "equal sharing" would reduce everyone to poverty, then a minority has to monopolize whatever wealth there is but hopefully as a means of moving society forward, not backward.
This should not result in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. That is an acknowledgment not only that there are problems but also that they are not being addressed.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And it was precisely this refusal to seriously address the problems of their times in EFFECTIVE and workable ways which shows us how decadent the Federation and its civilization was in ORBIT UNLIMITED. And, to me, only a far greater stress on limited gov't, free enterprise economics, and a genuine commitment to making fuller use of the resources of the Solar System would have worked.
Sean
Kaor. Paul!
Anderson seems to have been influenced by the Malthusian idea that population would grow until it reached the limit of people starving. That can happen, but doesn’t have to: Some wealthy countries today have populations which are not reproducing themselves; elsewhere, relative prosperity and education for girls have reduced population growth. In the world of ORBIT UNLIMITED, it doesn’t seem that most boys, let alone girls, on Lowlevel get much education, or have goals and alternative interests in life to make them postpone or limit sex and babies.
The rich minority ought to use its wealth and power to achieve progress for everyone, but that isn’t what seems likely to happen, partly because of the problem of incentives. The Guardians see the need to climb the ladder further and protect themselves and their families against rivals. If you’re a decent person in the upper class in such a scenario, what do you do? Giving away your own wealth to help a few of the poor wouldn’t fix the system. Trying to change the whole system from within would be exceedingly difficult, with the other members of the elite having incentives to stop your reforms, and so Svoboda doesn’t try; instead, he arranges for his own son and a relative handful of other people to escape and start a new society elsewhere.
(I’ve fallen behind on the blog, but may catch up a bit.)
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Now that you've mentioned it, ORBIT UNLIMITED does have a rather "Malthusian" air about it. And you expressed more clearly my view that when free enterprise economics is allowed to work, not only is more GENUINE wealth created but people also tend to voluntarily limit population growth.
I think Poul Anderson was on sounder ground when he argued, in both his stories and non fiction essays like "Commentary" in SPACE FOLK, that the long term hope and future of mankind lies in getting OFF this rock and into the Solar System. Both for economic/technological reasons and also because that creates more OPTIONS for liberty surviving.
I hope we see more comments by you and take note of S.M. Stirling's recent remarks.
Regards! Sean
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