Origin

Once upon a time there was a land called Origin. It was called Origin because some people lived there, and they thought they had always lived there. The people who lived in Origin were called Originals, and they all knew each other. They all lived together in a village called Village. Village was beside a big river called Freshwater, and Freshwater had a lot of fish in it. There were fields beside Freshwater, too, and they were very fertile. The Originals fished in the river and they grew crops in the fields. Each of them had a little house with a garden and they grew vegetables, and some of them kept chickens there, too. Others had fruit trees or bushes in their gardens, and one or two of the people kept a cow or some pigs. In summer Village was warm and it only rained at night: in winter it snowed for exactly one day and the snow lay on the ground for exactly three days. And that was when the Originals had their big party; because it was cold, and there is nothing nicer than a big party when it is cold. They didn't have a big party in summer: they had a lot of little parties instead. They had parties when it was warm enough to plant their vegetables; and parties when somebody had a baby; and parties when the crops were brought home. But they also had mini parties when they had to wash their clothes, because it is nice to do that all at the same time: it makes the work go better.

The Originals lived like this for a very long time. They had enough to eat and to drink: they had a house each, and when anybody needed a new house they built one: and they had a party for that too. The woods were quite near and they did not find it difficult to find wood for their fires. Ocean was not far away so they could get salt and shellfish there. They liked to learn things, so some of them were quite wise in their own way. Sometimes the Originals had a lot of stuff: and sometimes not so much. It is often like that when you live by growing stuff. You get too many lettuces for a few months and then you dont get any at all for ages. The Originals did not like it that they were a bit poor some winters: but they shared what they had and they got by.

Eventually one of the folk who liked to make things invented the Big Boat. And the Big Boat could go on Ocean. So some of the Originals decided to go out in the Big Boat and see what they could find. Everybody helped to build the Big Boat, but only a few could go in it. They went in summer, so they could take plenty of food and water, and the Originals had a special party to see them off and they all went down to the shore to wave when they left. They were away for a very long time, and people often wondered how they were getting on.

The next winter, just as the Originals were cooking and baking and decorating Village for the big party, the people who had gone away in the Big Boat came home. The Originals were very pleased and excited and they all ran down to the shore to help get the Big Boat out of the water and to welcome their friends. The people in the Big Boat were happy, too. They had all sorts of things to tell about what they had seen, and they were glad to see how everyone had been getting on while they were away. They had brought all kinds of new things back from the land they had visited, which they called Abroad. There were new kinds of cloth and new food and even some new tools like strong sharp knives. They had swapped some of the food and cloth they had for these things. And they had brought new ideas with them too.

One of the new ideas they brought back was that the things they had found were "theirs". They said that they had been "enterprising" because they had done something new, and that if they had not done that the new things would not have been found. So they said that they did not need to share what they had found. They said they deserved a "reward" for being so brave and clever.

Some of the Originals did not understand that idea. They couldn't see how that could be right, because if they had not given the travellers food and drink to keep them while they travelled the people could not have gone off in the Big Boat. And they had all helped to build it. But the people in the Big Boat said that they were entitled to that help because that is how things had always been done: they had shared their own food and drink and the other things everybody had, and going away made no difference to that. But the things they had discovered were new and had not always been shared: and that made them different. They said that nobody had lost anything because they would have eaten and drunk if they stayed at home. They said that Village had gained the new things because of what they had done. And obviously there was not enough of the new things to go round properly, anyway. If they shared out the new cloth everybody would only get a handkerchief. It would be better if they kept it and then some could get a whole suit of clothes. They would go again next summer and get more of the new cloth, and over time everybody would get an outfit: but for now they would keep the cloth for themselves.

Well some of the Originals thought this made sense: and they agreed that the people who went in the Big Boat could all have a new suit of clothes made of the new cloth. That would mean that everybody else would have more of the old cloth, so everybody would be better off. But the people who went in the Big Boat said that was no good. They should not have to do without their share of the old cloth, because it had always been shared equally. And that was true. Some of the Originals said that there was less of the old cloth because the people who went in the Big Boat had not made their share that year: but they said that they would give Village some of the new food they had found to make up for that. The other Originals would only have to make a little more of the old cloth and that would not take up much time: especially if they had the new food to enjoy (though there wasn't very much of it, it would be good for the feast at the party).

Some of the Originals felt there was something wrong with all of this: but they did not know how to disagree without seeming petty. It WAS only a little more work: and it did make sense to keep the cloth for suits, not handkerchiefs: and they HAD always shared the old cloth: and they would have a better feast. They could not see any real harm: not harm enough to risk falling out over. And of course those who were uneasy told themselves that they could go on the Big Boat next summer, in their turn. So they agreed.

The people of Village wanted everyone to have a new suit of new cloth as soon as possible: and the people who had been in the Big Boat said that they could get as much as needed: but only if they had old cloth to swap for the new. So all winter the people of Village had to work harder making cloth than they had before: but they wanted everything to go back to being equal so they thought that was worth it.

The next summer the people who sailed on the Big Boat last year said that they should be the ones to go again this year. They had "experience" and they all had the same suit, which looked very smart. They had got a lot of new things from the people who lived Abroad and that was because they were clever: nobody else could have got so much for so little. So it made sense if they travelled. There wasn't much to say about that. It DID make sense, kind of. Course there were those who did not believe the last bit: but there was no denying that the people who went last year knew where they were going and that they had "experience".

So that is what they did. They invented the "entrepreneur"

Should the people of Village have:

1. Accepted the story they heard from the people who went on the Big Boat and gone along with their new ideas because everyone would be better off in the long run?

2. Left them with their cloth and new food and knives, but insisted that trips in the Big Boat be shared, so everyone had a turn?

3. Refused to give them Village food and drink and all the rest until they also shared what they had ?

3. Taken the new things they were not willing to share by force?

4. Something else: if so what?

New ideas bring with them the potential for progress, and the people of Village clearly saw that. The ones who went on the Big Boat, however, seem to have had their minds closed, presumably by feelings of superiority. Their point that experienced people should take the boat, I think, rings true; a Big Boat is a large responsibility, after all, and it may well have been sheer luck that they succeeded in the first endeavour. However, for the sake of Village, perhaps only a few experienced sailors should go the second time, with a few new to sailing the seas. That way, experience is shared, and everyone benefits. Experimentation with different people doing trade could also yield greater results, who knows?

The sharing of ideas and experience is always of greater value than material things. Village food and goods is clearly good enough, luxury is not necessary. But keeping others of Village from seeing the world, is of no benefit to anyone but the Big Boaters, and then only in the short run. The potential for great prosperity for Village exists here, but the Big Boaters' greed is slowly raising its ugly head, in response to the recent innovation of ownership. In the longer run, however, it does not benefit them to be selfish, as Village will be less willing to share their food and goods, which the Big Boaters may need. And a good sailor should know always to have a friendly port.

If you believe that the long term interest of the Big Boat people will prevent them from pursuing their short term advantage, I can only disagree: I think we have seen in the real world that it will not necessarily do that. That is one of the absurdities of the neoclassical position. People are not very rational and they are particularly poor at thinking long term. They are wonderfully able to justify present misery on long term promises, however: so long as the misery is not theirs. That is the point of Keynes' "in the long run we are all dead"

I think the fundamental point I was trying to raise as a question was: assuming that rationality or decency or any other of those big words which might apply will not sort things out in and of themselves, what should the polity do when "greed rears its ugly head"? It is my view that the arguments which lead to inequitable outcomes are readily made and have a surface plausibility which tends to lead reasonable people to make concessions at the outset: largely because they cannot see long term consequences, and compromise is attractive in the interests of harmony. This can be exploited, and not necessarily consciously: but it does not end well.

Village is an attempt to illustrate the problem and to ask what a polity should adopt as principles and what it should do in defence of them. In the situation outlined they are offered exactly what the neoclassicists have offered in recent decades: it boils down to allowing one group to amass wealth on the idea that it will "trickle down". I do not believe that but the question is what to do when that proposition is first put to a society?