AsksWhy Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Our government introduce ideas (bills), that later get passed as laws (http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/Education/ourcountryourparliament/html_booklet/process-passing-bill-e.html). In short, they write the rules of the game we play (in life). So the question is: Should our government continue to pass laws that support and sustain the act(s) of competing to survive, or should the laws that get enacted encourage a more cooperative method of survival? Another way of wording this might be: Should we continue to mimic animals and act in ways that push us to compete-to-survive, or should we rise above these lower intellects and choose to support methods that encourage cooperative survival? Based on my experiences, from an economic standpoint, we compete for all things related to: MONEY! - As money gets us: food, shelter, water, etc. But it thrusts us into competition on ALL LEVELS at the same time. Not only that, we have a whole section of our Justice System dedicated to Business Law; thus, supporting this competitive behavior. Would it make more sense (possibly) to scrap the idea of money altogether? Teach our children the difference between NEEDS and WANTS, and that everyone must contribute (in some way, shape, or form) a percentage of their time to assure that peoples NEEDS are met? And then optionally, go after some of the things we WANT in life - in our spare time? Essentially, all we'd be doing is better organizing human output - becoming more efficient. - No? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
?Impact Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Yes, our entire economic system needs to be revisited. While it does allow a small percentage of the population to accumulate wealth, it does very little for the masses. The other question you are getting at is the efficiency of the entire system, does competitiveness or cooperation drive more efficiency. We have many examples where competitiveness had allowed the inferior solution to emerge as the winner. Competitiveness also stifles creativity because of the huge hurdles around intellectual property have nothing to do with technology and all to do with legal strength. b.t.w. This topic should be moved to Political Philosophy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Anthony Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 49 minutes ago, ?Impact said: b.t.w. This topic should be moved to Political Philosophy Done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonam Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 (edited) Competition allows the best idea/solution/method/process/etc to eventually rise to the top. This doesn't always happen, especially when competition is distorted by regulation, monopolies, or collusion, but even in the modern market where all of these things run amok, most products and services benefit from competition. As for cooperation... when cooperation is mandated/enforced by the government, you end up with central planning, which has been demonstrated time and again to lead eventually to the worst possible outcomes (mass starvation, economic collapse, violent revolution, elimination of basic human rights, and genocide). On the other hand, many individuals and many corporations cooperate with each other voluntarily and this can be very productive and useful. Edited February 9, 2017 by Bonam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hardner Posted February 9, 2017 Report Share Posted February 9, 2017 Competition and cooperation are a part of life and you won't get rid of them. You also won't get rid of money as a self-organizing driver. What about changing it ? What about making money expire if you don't spend it ? What about if all money was made digital and removing privacy of transactions ? What about creating tiers of money - one for necessary goods and one for extras ? Money is created, managed, controlled by the government. If the people want them to try something else with it, they can tell their governments to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
?Impact Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 1 hour ago, Michael Hardner said: What about creating tiers of money - one for necessary goods and one for extras ? Interesting, but wouldn't an exchange rate develop between tiers? If not official, then on black markets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlight Graham Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 The thing is, humans used to cooperate to survive, when they lived in smaller tribes or villages. There was a true sense of community, and if they didn't cooperate they'd die. That's why people like to cooperate, it's an evolutionary adaptation. But so is selfishness. In very large societies, spanning across a continent sometimes like our country, it's harder to make this work cooperatively, so competition has has done a lot of good things to fill that void, with some nasty side effects as well. It would be nice to live in smaller communities like days of yore, but in modern society I just don't know how to make people want to work really hard if it only benefits others & not themselves, especially when they don't know these other people on the other side of the province/country, and where failure to cooperate doesn't mean life or death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonlight Graham Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 4 hours ago, Michael Hardner said: What about changing it ? What about making money expire if you don't spend it ? What about if all money was made digital and removing privacy of transactions ? What about creating tiers of money - one for necessary goods and one for extras ? Money is created, managed, controlled by the government. If the people want them to try something else with it, they can tell their governments to do it. Very interesting ideas I never thought of. Expiring money won't work. Ppl will just buy valued goods like gold in order to store/save their money. Tiers of money is interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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