Achieving A More Perfect Society: Part 1
We start this musing with the simple supposition that the best society is one which generates the maximum personal contentment for the greatest number of citizens. We then extend this premise to acknowledge that science now enables us to generate a better environment for young people in their formative years. We also accept that human ethics is a genetic trait subject to variation as other genetic traits, and a trait that can be best developed by certain applications of current scientific knowledge. Rejected is the notion of ethics via inherited scriptures written thousands of years ago by humans, decades after a prophet has died. While there are legitimate ethical principles in all religious scriptures, these principles are all mixed in with cultural attitudes of the time, scientific ignorance, and ethical absurdities.
Having set some parameters here, this musing can proceed, albeit with zero chance of getting all the specific details properly finalized. This, at best, is the beginning of a correct path which, with finer tuning, can lead to it’s final destination: the greatest maximal personal contentment for the greatest number of citizens.
This process is applicable to all human groups—the poor, the wealthy, all races, all cultures, all gender identities, all sexual orientations, varied personalities, and varied genetic talents. This process recognizes that the laws which drive the evolutionary process depend on genetic diversity, the environment, chance, change, and time. This process accepts that whatever the nature of a ‘God’ Who created these laws, there is no evidence that this ‘God’, however perceived, ever nullifies any of these laws on behalf of any member of any species. This process does not eliminate beliefs, but sees the best beliefs as those with the most credible evidence. Over time credible beliefs, via science, can be elevated to fact.
We begin by admitting that all humans are not created equal at all, but all do deserve the best level playing fields a human society can construct. Importance is not a word applicable to any individual of any species. What is important to this created evolutionary process is progress, not in any steady line in terms of human time, but over evolutionary Time. We, all of us,— GO, TIME stays. Life is of value not via any individual importance gained, but via the degree of contentment achieved.
A Healthy society cannot be gained overnight or in a few years. It takes decades for this proposed process to mature. The process starts with monitoring chronic stress levels of all citizens. Elevated chronic levels of specific stress hormones interferes with healthy human physiology. Left unattended, many body systems are negatively affected, especially during the formative years. There is plenty of evidence abounding which indicates that modernity, engulfed by human overpopulation, extreme income disparity, unemployment, low wages for a population growing at an exponential rate, increased job insecurity, shrinking pensions, rising costs of medical care, millions of refugees driven from their homes via various sorts of civil and religious wars, decreasing tolerance for diversity, climate change, and so on——all these are generating increased levels of chronic stress hormones among a greater percentage of humans on our planet. This increased level of chronic stress hormones damages human physiological well-being, especially for those in their formative years, and it is especially damaging for those without the proper psychological defense mechanisms to help inhibit the damage produced by chronic high levels of stress hormones.
We start with the premise that all citizens need be gainfully employed. Gainfully means a reasonable living wage, and one which rises each year with the cost of living. In an age where machines and computers can do so much work, faster and better than human labor, there should be no need for humans to work so many hours per week. We have managed to pervert this into a situation where some work long hours or two jobs at low wages and at the same time a spouse works too. So we have ended up with many citizens working too many hours at low wages, and many not able to find a job at all.To top this off, those with specific talents of varied sorts make grotesquely high incomes. This is so bad now that 2-5% of Americans own 90% of the nation’s wealth.
Raw capitalism doesn’t work in today’s real world. We need to start with everyone working a job, let’s say for 30 hrs a week at a living wage or higher. Second jobs would not be permitted since the first priority is that everyone have a job. Will things be more expensive? Of course. And thus, the question begs, just where does all the money come from to do this? Well, it is going to come from several sources and no doubt from more than mentioned here. Am I the best person to properly judge the feasibility of all this? No. The mathematical wizards would have to modify, add, and manipulate a lot of parameters to get a workable model.
A working job for everyone at a living wage does not not by any means mean equal pay for everyone. The market will continue to operate here. For a start, with everyone working a living wage job, welfare costs become minuscule. That’s a huge amount of money. When people are economically independent and productive members of society chronic stress is minimized. Self esteem goes up.
Loopholes for the affluent would get plugged up. No loopholes are needed for anyone. Taxes become simplified and progressive. Progressive rates are absolutely necessary so all the wealth cannot accumulate in the hands of a few. In the days of Eisenhower, there were plenty of wealthy people amongst us and the top tax rate was 90% with few loopholes. With financial income, as with most endeavors, there is an ‘enough is enough”. This would generate a huge increase in money for the government.
Inheritance taxes would be steep again, like they once were. Here is another source of huge income to the government. The healthiest environment for any society is one in which every citizen earns their own wealth. Genetic cabals of wealth would be eliminated. If someone wants to be wealthy they need to earn that wealth themselves, not inherit it. Inherited wealth rarely generates personal contentment. If anyone thinks people like Donald Trump are contented souls they have a weird vision of contentment. The fairest way is for everyone to earn their own way.
Taxes would go up substantially for everyone. But this is simply a trade-off. All the basics we already get from taxes would remain plus now add good health care for everyone, good schools for everyone, good teachers for everyone, a job for everyone, a decent pension for everyone, adequate government help for all citizens with special needs, and if anyone’s offspring end up with special needs as adults, everyone pays to help them via our taxes. Yes, taxes would go up but the kind of things so many of us worry about today would not exist——a good job, good health, good schools, etc. Gone would be the days of so many living in poverty, or 43% of citizens not earning enough money to even qualify to pay federal income taxes.
I cannot say by what percent taxes would go up. Maybe the average person would only have 50% left to spend. But most of the things so many of us worry about would be taken care of. Ghettoes would disappear, accumulating obscene wealth would be stopped, and The Golden rule would be the safety net for the less fortunate. We would, as a nation, absorb the burden of all adults with needs, parental responsibility for that having expired at the end of the formative years. Of course the lucky families will retain special ties with family members and be released from competition for any family fortune or the burden of being unable to properly support adult family members with mental or physical needs.
The capitalistic spirit would be alive and well as all adults are free to compete for their own financial good fortune, the big difference being the playing fields will be much more level from birth on. Regular testing for chronic high blood levels of stress hormones will be the cornerstone of medical attention for all members of society.
The educational system would be drastically changed. Computers would be the primary source of inputting facts of varied disciplines into our brains, not endless lectures, period after period, by teachers. Yet teachers will be even more important. Qualified ’teachers’ will be available to all children and adults with high chronic levels of stress hormones, especially all children. These new “teachers will be experts in detecting the source of the chronic stress and will work in teams to do two things: eliminate the source of the stress, and build needed psychological defenses to help the person cope better with the identified stresses. Parental control over their children will remain sacred but a child’s right to receive the necessary help to deal with chronic stress will trump parental rights. It is unethical to let bad parenting increase the chances for children to become damaged adult citizens.
Willy nilly parenting will be trumped by responsible reproduction. Regardless of any inherited or adopted religion, global protection of quality human life requires limits on reproductive prowess. At birth parental skills will be addressed and assistance provided. Every child will have enough quality adult assistants dependent on their needs. When needed, volunteers will fill roles such as aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, big brothers, big sisters or whatever whenever needed. It may often require a ‘Village’ for many children to have a safe healthy stimulating and supportive environment during their formative years.
When a society has it’s priorities right, ample money and enough personal investment by all sorts of people, then life for all citizens will be more productive, prosperous (in a real sense of the term), and peaceful. Families will be stronger, more successful, and appreciation for diversity more widespread. To the extent possible groups will no longer be pitted against each other but will be serving together for the common good of their common society.
Not surprisingly, this topic requires presentation in parts, as otherwise the musing becomes too long. So this will be continued after I digest where I am at with so many interlocking changes at once. If nothing else this discourse is more thought provoking than any current political campaigns.
