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[Taken from Yol Ja Ruud’s reports and the diary of Melanie Grange. RBB]
When Yol Ruud arrived in the guests’ lounge on the starship the next morning, it was in a holding orbit waiting to descend to the surface of the second planet on the leaders’ schedule.
The large, picture window showed a green, misty world set into the black of space. Ya Lindron had already explained that Ecisfiip has almost continual cloud cover, but one of the benefits of that is an even temperature and almost continual mild drizzly rain. It’s a planet capable of growing almost anything.
The Earth leaders were in discussion at one end of the room with Prime Minister Grange of New Zealand and President Mistoba of Bolivia standing, admiring the view. President Spence of the USA, Prime Minister Channarong of Thailand, President Toscano of Italy, and Prime Minister Solberg of Sweden, were seated, and in animated conversation.
When Yol Spence spotted Yol Ruud, he said, ‘Ah, here he is now. Ruud, can you come over here? We’ve some questions.’
‘Surely. We have about an hour before touchdown. First stop the industrial section of the city of Qisvij.’
‘Ah, that might be a helpful location, too,’ said President Spence, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, cradling his chin. ‘Listen, Ruud. That prison. How does that work? Sitting around reading. Doesn’t seem much like punishment.’
Yol Ruud sat himself on the arm of one of the couches. ‘When freedom of will, and the ability to do whatever you would like in life, is removed from you, it is a huge punishment. Prisoners are in stasis. There is no reason you should not walk up to them and stand beside them. They will not be aware of you. What they are aware of is the book they are reading and a heads-up display showing how long they have to serve. When they finish a book, chosen by the prison computer, they must answer a series of questions about it to prove that they have been concentrating. The last thing any individual wants in the Federation, is to be unable to enjoy his, her, or its freedom. What you witnessed was a severe punishment. Imagine yourself in that situation, being compelled to read volumes in which you have no interest for the next five years. The other reason for the questions is to ensure the prisoner is not thinking about other things, perhaps related to their crimes.’
‘I see,’ said President Toscano, ‘but why not useful books, to educate?’
‘Oh, most of them are. The prison computers, however, have to be sure the books are a challenge. You don’t provide a book on abuse to an abuser.’
‘Okay, Ruud,’ said President Spence, ‘that explains it, but what are the crimes they’ve committed?’
‘I don’t know the specifics of those we saw on Daragnen, Yol Spence, but most crimes are personal, being abusive to others. Occasionally this spills over into actual violence to the person, just about the most serious crime of all.’
‘Killing someone?’ asked President Mistoba.
‘That’s very rare and would attract an extended sentence and monitoring by a robot for life after release. Most crimes against the person are physical abuse, verbal abuse, and so on,’ said Yol Ruud.
‘What? Verbal abuse is a crime?’ asked President Spence.
‘Certainly. Simply being obnoxious to someone could see a day or a week in prison. If it’s done in public, it would be longer. Striking a person – two or three months depending on the seriousness of the injury.’
‘Yol Ruud, what if a citizen deliberately incites someone to the point that they react?’ Prime Minister Grange asked.
‘The circumstances are assessed, Ya Grange. You might not be aware of it, but we can rewind real life. I don’t mean like a television programme, but we can see what occurred.’
‘What? Can you show us?’ asked President Spence.
‘No. For privacy reasons, only judges can request situation assessment, as it’s called. They would be able to hear the words used and who spoke them. It is pretty conclusive.’
‘What about exercise for them if they’re in this stasis?’ asked Prime Minister Grange.
‘Each day, there’s an inactive period when they are fed a calorie correct liquid diet. The stasis field actually keeps the muscles active, so condition is not lost, but moving about is not allowed. Being still all day, every day, and being fed a liquid diet, is most unpleasant and part of the punishment,’ said Ya Ruud.
‘Tell me, Ruud, how do you deal with theft, fraud, and robbery?’ asked President Spence.
‘In the same way, Yol Spence, but I must tell you that those crimes are virtually unheard of. If you want something you just order it. Why steal it and end up in prison?’
‘But if someone has a million, what’s the currency, afeds, hidden under their bed, they could easily be stolen?’
Yol Ruud let out a real belly laugh, and for someone whose belly was behind their face, it was rather dramatic.
‘What’s so funny?’ demanded President Spence.
‘I’m sorry, Yol Spence, but we should probably spend some time looking at the economy of the Federation. What you’ve suggested is impossible. Every afed has an identification. No one can move one without everyone else being able to see where it has gone. Let me explain.’ Yol Ruud sat himself at the end of the couch and looked around at the leaders.
‘Each person in the Federation receives a fixed number of afeds every year and a similar number for services they render on a volunteer or community service basis. Afeds are kept in a digital wallet. There is no other personal wealth. At the end of the fiscal year, any afeds over the permitted number are reallocated back to the banks. The fixed income is more than sufficient to live a wonderful lifestyle, travelling your world and even the galaxy on holidays. You have enough to buy anything you may wish to own. The extra income is usually spent on hobbies, projects or other personal interests.’
‘Who owns the banks?’
‘No one, Yol Spence. The banks keep a record of the afeds and advise the Federation of fluctuations in supply and demand.’
‘Who keeps the profits the banks make?’
‘There are no profits. The bank must ensure it has liquidity, but any surplus would be ploughed back into the Federation budget.’
‘So, the profits ultimately go to the government?’
‘Yes, if there are any, and losses would be covered by the government, but the banks are instructed to balance their accounts, not make a profit or a loss.’
‘So, you must form a company to make money?’ asked President Spence, pursuing his interest in the financial aspects to the Federation.
‘No, you cannot “make money” as such. If you want to see a product developed, you give the idea to various organisations; they obtain the finance to produce it and that is that. If you particularly wanted to, you could help with the product’s design, its marketing or even the toolmaking for it. The manufacture, of course, would be automatic.’
The President of the United States stood, folded his arms defensively and said, ‘Are you telling me that if I come up with an idea for an amazing gadget which could be sold for millions, the only way to produce it would be to give it to an organisation and all I’d get is my usual annual amount of afeds?’
‘Let me return the question to you, Yol Spence. What would you do with the idea?’
President Spence thought for a moment. ‘I’d build factories, providing people with jobs, good jobs – managers, foremen, salesmen, directors, and they would make me a fortune which I could then use to build more factories and come up with more products.’
‘Yol Spence, what makes you think anyone would want to work in a business like that? Ya Lindron told me that you met Yol Dereen yesterday. Do you think he would want to do manual labour in your factory rather than study his butterflies, make toys, and spend his time gliding?’
‘He’d earn so much more money,’ said Yol Spence.
‘And what would he do with it? Buy more gadgets he neither needs nor wants? If he wanted one of your gadgets, he would just ask for it. Listen, Yol Spence, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to come up with innovative new products, in fact, it isn’t. We all need to move forward. Just think about this: if you’ve all the wealth you could ever want, lived in the place you think is wonderful and had an idea for a product, why not produce it, as part of your volunteer work? Do you really want to be stuffing polymers into moulds with your own hands? Where is the sense in that? If you’re good at innovation, then innovate, but don’t expect others to work for you – they’ll have their own desires, interests and priorities.’
‘But what if I want a huge yacht or my own starship? You can’t tell me ordinary people have the money for that,’ and he sat again, bringing his fist down upon the table. Several drink containers rattled.
‘You can have your own starship, but how will you staff it? No one will work for you. You can have your own yacht, but who will crew it? No one will work for you. Yol Spence, you miss the point. If you want to cruise the oceans of Gelvavia, find a number of people who will come with you and share the adventure, the cost, and the labour. You can do it, but you need to participate in it with them, not demand they do it for you. The same applies to your own starship. Find some others who want to spend a year visiting the seventy worlds of Losend. There’ll be plenty of takers and they’ll come with you, but again, you need to participate in it. If you want to own things, possess things, command things, direct everything, and try to coerce people to your will, it will come to nothing! You could use robots, of course.’
‘So, I could buy a starship and staff it with robots?’
‘In theory, yes, but having your own starship is only marginally more convenient than buying a cabin on one.’
‘But if I own it, it will go where I want!’
‘You can travel to any destination, Yol Spence. Why does it need to be in your own starship?’
‘So, if I wanted to return to Daragnen right now, I could on a regular route?’ asked the US President.
‘Give or take a day or so, yes. It might require a change of starship part way there. There isn’t usually a direct route between Daragnen and Ecisfiip.’
‘That’s why I might want my own starship!’
‘You could do it, but it would be a drain on your income, leaving very little for living. I think you are pushing our economic system beyond its boundaries,’ said Yol Ruud.
‘Aha! See! I should be able to be wealthy if I work hard. Your system prevents that. It is communism. Ruud, you’re bringing everyone down to the same level!’
‘I can see your point, Yol Spence. You would prefer everyone to be a little worse off so that some people can be incredibly wealthy.’
‘You’re twisting my words. Don’t tell me you are earning the same income as that butterfly herder!’
‘But I am. Okay, at the moment I’m putting in a long stint of volunteering to help show you around the Federation, but the afeds I receive for that work are exactly the same as if I were helping a disabled person with their garden. I’m banking the volunteer hours and might use them for some extended project or trip later in the year. I’m enjoying being one of your hosts. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it! No one does anything they don’t like doing. We have devices to do the unpleasant tasks.’
The room fell into silence. There was no arguing with Yol Ruud’s logical explanation of the Federation economic system. Anyone could do anything, but only as a participant. On Earth, people could only be rich at the expense of the poor. As a committed capitalist, Yol Spence would take a lot of persuading.
‘Now, come on, everyone,’ said Yol Ruud as he joined others at the window. ‘Ya Lindron and I want to show you the delights of Ecisfiip. I see we’re now descending. Yol Spence, I understand your concerns. It is a choice which your world will have to make – people living on a dollar a week in Central Africa so a tiny minority can be billionaires or everyone sharing the wealth of the planet equally and having full, rewarding lives. It comes down to priorities. Keep the questions coming but try not to see everything in terms of personal gain, profit, and money. There’s so much more to discover within the Federation and this is only our second day.’
Prime Minister Grange came up to President Spence and stood quite closely beside him. ‘Jack, a word...’
‘Certainly, Melanie.’
‘You’re dropping the honorific when you speak to Yol Ruud. How I understand it, not using the honorific is an insult. Thought you might not have realised.’
‘Thank you,’ he said, looked daggers at her and crossed the lounge to the coffee machine.
Melanie Grange shrugged and looked at the view. Outside, green misty wisps were rising up the ship like lime candyfloss. Soon it was completely immersed. Nothing could be seen through the cloud cover until, yes, was that something, shapes, geometric shapes? Buildings surrounded the ship which was easing its way slowly groundward between apartment blocks. It seemed as if the arrival was at dusk or before dawn or, maybe, the cloud cover made everything so dull and foggy continually. Beyond the flats, it looked like an industrial complex. Melanie Grange hoped it was more exciting than that. She was looking forward to writing another letter to Gina later tonight.