The Future of Values
Value is a need. What we need more of is more valuable. Values can be objective and subjective. Objective values are correct, guiding us to the right path and making our lives right. However, a person can possess a tremendous contemplative ability to establish subjective values where they do not exist, and then feel compelled to impose them on others. Such values are alienated from their objective essence, and once adopted in society, they direct people to the wrong path. People who are on the wrong path cannot live well. This is just what is happening to us. To improve our lives, we must make a general inventory of the values we have adopted. We need to unmask the alienated values and support the natural ones. That will direct society to the correct path.
I will try to explain what this is actually about with an example comparing the value of air and money. Money has market value because it can be appropriated and can realize power in society, while air cannot be appropriated and has no market value. But if we compare the use value of money and air, we realize that air is infinitely more valuable than money because, without air, we cannot live.
Now imagine two men, and let’s say one has 1,000 times as much money as the other. In a society where money is the accepted value and air is not, the first person is worth 1,000 times as much as the other. In an alienated society, possessing value gives power in the community, meaning the first person would have 1,000 times as much power as the other. This is wrong, immoral and unjust. However, this is basically what we have today. Today, people value their achievements far more than air, which is wrong because no life is possible without it. Because people don't appreciate air enough, they treat it irresponsibly, which means they are irresponsible with their own future. If these two men understood the importance of air, they could agree that the air they jointly own and breathe is worth at least as much as the money they possess. Then the ratio between the values these two men possess would no longer be 1:1,000, when only the market value of money is taken into account, but 1:3 when one takes into account the use value of air as well. Such an arbitration of values would be fairer, more moral, and correct from a human perspective, and in the long run, it would help protect air, which, of course, means protecting people.
Such an arbitration of values might seem unnatural and impossible to realize. I could agree that such arbitration is unnatural, but it is a necessity because we live in an unnatural society. In this way, society would begin to learn to appreciate air as a natural asset.
To those who think that such arbitration is unrealizable, I would say that similar arbitrations have been successfully implemented for a long time. Insurance companies can calculate the worth of human life at any time down to the last cent, although it is not objectively determinable. However, such arbitrage is helpful because people receive financial support from insurance companies for the death of their partners, without which some people would have difficulty making ends meet in the cruel world we live in. Or, courts could calculate precisely how much a person’s life is worth. It can be calculated by comparing a time imprisonment sentence for murder with the same period of imprisonment for stealing money. There is nothing objective about it, but the benefit of such arbitration is excellent because the fear of criminal law punishments prevents many people from killing other people, which is undoubtedly a great benefit.
Similarly, it would be helpful to assign a value to the air that surrounds us. Since the atmosphere is not defined by market value, we do not appreciate it enough and treat it irresponsibly. When people realize that air is one of the highest natural values, then they will appreciate the atmosphere more. When air becomes a defined value in society, people will act responsibly toward it. It is a condition of our survival!
Money has an alienating value because it gives power in society. That does not mean we should negate the value of money, as it would only worsen the situation in today’s alienated society. We need to build a society that demystifies the value of money, where the value of air becomes higher than that of money. This natural orientation will one day be accepted and guide society in the right direction.
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To create a better society, we must define all values that are accepted or should be accepted. First, we must determine the values society holds in common within a specific territory. These values include land, water, air, and everything people commonly possess in a particular region, whether they built it or found it valuable. Next, one must identify the values people hold privately in the same territory. Why is it necessary? Firstly, to determine what values are. If we define values that benefit society, people will strive to achieve them for the community’s good. This is the path to a good society. Second, we must determine how many of these values each person holds. A person becomes aware of his worth when he compares himself with other people. It is an alienated need, but it exists, and we must accept it. We can summarize the values every person achieves in life. I call the sum of these values the “productive value of a human” (PVH).
The value of common properties, including land, water, air, etc., cannot be objectively compared with the value of private property. Therefore, arbitration should determine the value of common property. Arbitration will be based on the ratio between the total value of common property in a region and the total value of private property. Experts might propose the most acceptable rate. Then, political parties may negotiate a range of possible ratio values, and the people may decide the final result directly. Everyone will choose the ratio that suits them best.
It should be noted that a higher value of the common property would reduce the value of private property and vice versa. The mean size of everyone's claims would determine the total value of common property that people together own in the region. Such arbitration cannot be objective, whatever value society adopts. Still, it will bring significant benefits to society as a whole because people will begin to appreciate values that they do not recognize today.
Because common property belongs equally to all people, we must ensure it is shared equally. An equal share of jointly owned property would become a fundamental PVH value that every human being possesses. Why is this important? With such an act, all people would accept that person as a value and, more importantly, that they would be equal from birth to every other human being in society. This is essential to society's prosperity.
Every person may increase their PVH if they, by their own free will, sell the private property they possess to their region. In this way, they would receive PVH values equivalent to those of companies, real estate, cash, shares, and all other assets that capitalism recognizes as valuable. Owners of private property may be interested in transferring their property to society because PVH would offer a form of humanistic shares in a pooled public company over a territory. An increase in PVH's value would bring them higher income. PVH would also be inherited through generations. In this way, owners of the means of production would accept PVH as a universally acceptable value.
If owners of private property are unwilling to sell their means of production to society, they might be compelled to do so because public companies are more productive. Namely, public companies will adopt a principle of work competition among workers for each work position at any time. No economy is more productive than one where each job gets the best available worker. Such an economy will achieve a level of productivity that private companies cannot match, and therefore, they will be forced to join public companies. Last but not least, work competition would let workers choose jobs they love more, which is almost impossible now. In this way, work would become a direct value, which is essential for forming a sound and sane society.
The productivity workers offer at every work post would not make sense if they were not responsible for achieving the productivity they proposed. Using the PVH would make it possible to establish an effective system for assigning workers’ responsibilities based on the economic productivity they contribute to the manufacturing process in public companies. If workers do not meet their productivity proposal, they will bear responsibility by losing an equivalent value of the PVH they own. If the company incurs losses, workers would take responsibility in proportion to the value they contribute to the company’s total damage.
If workers propose greater responsibility for their work, they would, in the event of the company’s losses, experience a larger decrease in the value of their PVH. In this way, PVH would ensure that workers take on significant responsibilities in the production process, which underpins society's prosperity. Conversely, if a company earns profits, workers who take on greater responsibility in their work will gain more from their PVH. PVH represents workers' productive power, making it a powerful driver of a productive society. I discuss it further in the article The Future of Economics.
The PVH will become a simple and easily applicable measure that shows how much an individual has contributed to societal advantages and disadvantages, as well as to nature. A greater PVH will give a person a higher reputation in the community. But because some people might not want their PVH compared to others, they may keep it secret, known only to the PVH owner.
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A promising future for humankind cannot be based only on nature and capital. It is necessary to evaluate all improvements a person makes to nature and society, and then add their value to their PVH. For example, PVH could evaluate each award and add it to the PVH value of the person who received it. Conversely, if a person harms nature and society, PVH must impose a corresponding penalty. Such measures will be applied automatically whenever needed. Thus, the PVH will encourage people to act virtuously and prevent them from causing harm. In this way, the PVH will help create a significantly better future for humankind. The following examples will explain this further.
If a region has too low a birth rate, for example, people may decide to stimulate parents who want children with some values of PVH. Right now, it may be hard to predict because Earth's population is 6.5 billion, and that number is growing. Generally speaking, at some point, Earth will no longer be able to feed all its residents. Therefore, today we are in a dilemma that should not be: either we would limit the birth rate by mutual agreement, or we will reach a point where we would have to kill each other because there is not enough space on Earth for the permanent growth of the population.
I think an average restriction of two children per family is reasonable, and it would, in the long run, reduce Earth's population to a manageable limit. However, do not consider a limited birthrate a ban on birth; families that want more than two children would pay taxes, which, in the last instance, may include the value of PVH. That price may be as hefty as maintaining a reasonable number of inhabitants on the planet. But of course, that depends on the whole world accepting such an orientation. If it does not happen, there will not be an acceptable solution to the problem.
PVH will be especially affected by disobedience to the law. If a person acts against the law, they will lose a legally defined value from their PVH. Existing laws can easily judge each crime and convert it into a PVH value. If a person commits a severe crime, they might lose all the value of their PVH and even get into a negative value. A negative PVH cannot be kept secret. If this happens, everyone would know. Thus, the negative value of PVH could become more uncomfortable and painful than prison can be, so that prisons will no longer be needed. Each person will carefully avoid committing any crime. If a person still gets a negative PVH, they will try hard to get out of it, and that will only be possible through hard, productive work and outstanding behaviour over a long period.
By using PVH, we can effectively protect the environment from all kinds of pollution. It will be necessary to conduct studies and accept regulations on the maximum allowable pollution of air, water and soil. People who violate environmental protection laws or rules will be punished with financial penalties and, in the last instance, by a regulated PVH value. This way, it is possible to punish entire enterprises, regions, or even countries. Such regulation will surely protect the planet Earth from pollution. If the whole world does not accept an effective system of environmental protection, the consequences will be unacceptable for everyone.
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Society may create complex regulations that reward and punish people based on the value of their PVH to help build a good society. However, not all values can be regulated because people have varying individual needs. Therefore, the value representing the PVH should also depend on unregulated values, based on people’s opinions about others' free actions. This is an entirely new measure and, in my opinion, the most critical rule of the future. I call it democratic anarchy.
Democratic anarchy is a new form of social relations in which every person exercises equal power in society. We can do this by giving each person the right to evaluate the activity of any other person. Let each person have the power to allocate a total of, say, six evaluations per month. Three positive and three negative evaluations or five positive and one negative, etc. Each positive assessment should automatically increase the assessed person's total PVH by a small amount. On the other hand, any negative evaluation will result in a punishment of the same form. Let us say that the awards and penalties of such assessment would have an equivalent value of one dollar.
When people gain this power, they become respected members of society and, as such, are eventually valued within it. Of course, every person strives to receive more positive and fewer negative evaluations from others. This is why such an assessment will guide each member of society to create the highest possible advantages for the community and to diminish or eliminate all forms of disadvantages. As a result, bullies will not harass children at school anymore, bosses will not abuse their employees at work, neighbours will not make noise at night, salespeople will not cheat their customers, and politicians will not lie to people. They will all try to please other people in the best possible way. This is what will eliminate social evil and form a good society.
The system of democratic anarchy will especially affect authorities. The higher an authority's position in society, the greater their responsibility to society. For example, President Bush criminally attacked Iraq. Thus, he brought death and suffering to hundreds of thousands of people, including Americans, but Americans, not to mention Iraqis, were not able to stop him. In a society where money is practically the only accepted value, a person can quickly become worthless in another's eyes, leading to ugly things. In a system of democratic anarchy, President Bush could get 100,000,000 bad evaluations from the American people for bad policies, lies, and criminal aggression against Iraq. This would reduce his PVH by the equivalent of $ 100,000,000 in just one month.
On the other hand, I doubt supporters of President Bush would evaluate him positively because they might prioritize other positive evaluations and allocate them elsewhere. By applying the system of assessment, President Bush would no longer dare to implement destructive policies. And if it somehow happens, he would quickly run away from his position. Only the most skilful and brave individuals would dare lead countries. They will no longer be authorities, but our servants.
Democratic anarchy is actually the most potent tool of justice ever. How come? The answer lies in time. There is a saying: “Silent water moves hills.” The lasting power of evaluation, even with a small force like one dollar, will make people respect each other deeply. Human beings will become valuable. Everyone will try hard to please society in the best possible way. This social orientation looks a lot like love. Love can be defined as indiscriminate care for people, and democratic anarchy will surely bring it. Once love is established in society, it will create a good and sane society. In the future, the system of evaluation will probably abolish state laws, police, and even states. Nobody will need them anymore because a perfect society will be formed.
It is understandable and desirable that PVH becomes a significant value in society and, therefore, should be further encouraged. This would be achieved by giving people voting power proportional to their PVH. In that way, privileged members of society would more easily accept full democracy. I wrote more about the new form of democracy and democratic anarchy in the article The Future of Democracy.
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The new system of values will enable society's entire productive orientation. What does it actually mean? A person will become a center from which everything proceeds and to which everything returns. Each person will have equal decision-making rights in society, and therefore the system will, for the first time, indeed follow the needs of the people. Each person will have free access to any work post at any time, which will definitely eliminate the privileges and disadvantages associated with them. The system will democratically establish an efficient way to hold individuals accountable for their free actions, contributing to cooperation among people at all levels of human relationships. That will make a good society. Such a life would liberate people from the pressures of authorities, allowing the demystification of alienated values that authorities have imposed on people throughout history. The new life will enlighten people. Authorities will lose power over people. Idols will lose importance. They will all become ordinary people. Money and goods will lose their alienated value. People will accept natural values and learn to live in harmony with their own natures. This will create a good society and bring the joy of life.
It can be expected that by the development of natural values, people will cease comparing themselves to other people. Comparison with other people has always been just an alienating need. As a result of enlightenment, a person may one day lose the need to evaluate others or be evaluated. People will probably dismiss the PVH as the last alienated value. Then people will focus on natural values. Person-to-person will become the most significant value. Caring for others, sharing, helping, friendship, and brotherhood will become people's most essential needs. The person will find great pleasure in productive activities and in the act of love. They will love others unconditionally just because they exist. Love is the ultimate outcome of the values I have proposed. Love is the highest value a person can achieve for himself and for others. Once people start loving each other, they will create an entirely new world, values that are practically unforeseeable in today’s alienated society.
February 12, 2010