[ExI] dead weight

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Spike:


> This is not to say we don’t have real problems, for we do.  I don’t  
> know what happens when we get hordes of people living in tents along  
> freeways with nowhere to go.  We can easily imagine them becoming  
> increasingly hostile to ordinary people.  They are not hostile  
> against the 8 people with all that money (for they don’t even know  
> who or where they are (do you?)) but rather the very poor become  
> hostile against those ordinary people who are right there on the  
> other side of that freeway wall, who own a house with a mortgage and  
> a car in the driveway.

I heard a story once about a man who had a koi pond where the koi were  
listless, depressed, and aggressive toward one another. The man sought  
the advice of a sage and the sage told him to put a large rock in the  
koi pond. The man followed the sage's advice and it worked in  
improving the temperament of the fish. When the man asked the sage why  
the rock made such a big difference in the happiness of his koi, the  
sage told him that the rock gave purpose and hope to the fishes' lives.

Whereas before the fish could see the whole pond at once and thus  
there was nowhere to go and nothing to do. The fish thereby became  
depressed and angry. The rock however always hid a part of the pond  
from the fishes' vision, therefore the koi kept swimming in circles  
around the rock to see what was on the other side. In short, the rock  
gave purpose and meaning to lives of the fish, because it kept them  
busy trying to find out what was on the other side of the rock.

The point of my story is that you can't solve the problem of the  
technologically displaced by simply giving them money. You also have  
to give them purpose. That is why I think keeping the displaced  
persons in school indefinitely is a possible solution to the problem.  
Doing homework, studying for tests, working on projects and art, etc.  
will give these people something to do and goals to accomplish while  
they collect their dole from the government in order to continue  
buying goods and services from John's eight rich guys and their  
automated factories.

Stuart LaForge