How many of you think that this would make poverty history. I'm up for criticism too :)?

Question

The only way to end poverty effectively is listed in the following steps.
1. Unite all people and all land under a single council of leaders chosen by people of the previously existing countries.
2. Make all corporations and companies publicly owned by everyone.
3. Gain complete equality, cut out the will for personal gain.
4. Destroy the media, which will then be a useless business.
5. Encourage all people to take part in useful jobs, including those that will be dropped by all laboring children.(Because all people and lands are joined together, many jobs to meet the essentials of life will open up.)
6. Establish communism, ration supplies like food, water, fuel, and electricity for free, equal pay to all with free spending allowed. And certainly rewards for the hard-working, and punishment for the lazy.
7. Equal education for everyone, erase religious education completely, this will avoid area's of conflict,(Just look at Israel) even within the same religion.(The many branches of Judaism will never again argue.) After a generation or two the new people of united Earth will have no area's of conflict.
8. Switch council members at their will with others who will have the approval of all people in the newly established republic.
9. The day will come when world council members no longer must look after the equality of men and women, and will only calculate the rationing of essentials.
10. Destroy all harmful devices and forget all knowledge of how to use them.(There will be no danger because personal gain has been forgotten.)
11. Leave no one jobless, make sure there are no inventors to create controversial objects or harmful things.
12. Technological advancement will be completely forgotten, people will have been brainwashed to work for the good of others, anger will never again appear because all needs and wants will have been met. The human race will be fragile but indestructible due to the nonexistence of greed or any dangerous materials. Pathetic in the eyes of an outsider, but impregnable in the eyes of a citizen.

Answer 1

Been tried. Didn't work. Examples are the Soviet Union and the eastern bloc countries of Europe. Even China is turning more to a free market.

What you're not taking into account here is basic human nature. If a person works hard and another does not and they receive the same amount of reward, then incentive is gone. If you took all the wealth in the world and redistributed it to all the peoples, soon the old rich people would be rich again. Why? They are willing to work harder and smarter than other people are, thus the cream rises to the top. That is the way humans function.

Answer 2

I'll be brief and as kind as possible.
1. rather far fetched
2. a large majority are public, it's called the stock market.
3. are you suggestion global brainwashing?
4. isn't this a form of media? I take it then you would want the Internet shut down?
5. what useful Jobs are there? one job might not be as important as another but that does not mean that it should not be done. although I don't agree with child labor, put you self in their shoes for an instant, you have two children and there is no such thing as writing up a resume and mailing/emailing it out. the options are, (1) you work and the children don't get enough food or (2) the three of you work and you'll all get just enough to get by.
6. be serious, show me a successful communist regime with a completely content society
7. education, sure. Erase religion? easily said, but come on, that's like saying "okay everybody, start growing gills were going back to the ocean"
8. there is nobody that has the approval of everybody, you could not name a single name.
9. it would never get this far
10. okay why don't you start the movement, get rid of you car,TV,computer, microwave,ipod,etc.
11. you cannot stifle the human spirit/mind it is indestructible
12. pure fantasy and if it were a reality, god save Thoes poor poor brainwashed people.

Answer 3

1. The first provision would eliminate sovereignty of any kind, and whether or not its a good thing, sovereignty is a very popular notion. Doing this would lead to a world war, with people of every nation rising up against this Council of yours.

2. This would eliminate any motivation for profit, and thus, any motivation for advancement. If everything is publicly owned, why bother with doing anything? Why should I give of my own time, labor and effort when I'm not getting anything special in return?

3. Same point as #2. If people don't even have the will for personal gain, what would possibly entice them to ever do anything at all? The human race would starve to death because it had no will.

4. The media, as biased (in both directions) and as sensationalist as it is, still plays a vital role in maintaining social order. Wherever there is no media, an underground one will develop. People crave information, about their world and the outside world. Today the media numbs that craving, where you can turn on the TV, sit back and turn off your brain. You take that away and people will realize what they've lost. They will form new media in defiance of your One World Council, and this media won't be so placid and controllable as the news we have today.

5. Just how will you encourage people to do this? You've already taken away their will to do anything. At most, they will only be willing to do the minimal amount of work that will keep themselves alive, meaning everyone will have to do this work, because no one will have any motivation to do anything more than the bare minimum.

6. Here you're contradicting your own suggestions. Rewards for the hard-working and punishment for the lazy goes very strictly against #3's destruction of the will for personal gain. If I have no will for personal gain, what do I care for your rewards? What kind of punishment can you give me when I'm already living on the bare minimum required to live?

7. Erasing religious education, and thus religion, far from eliminating conflict, will cause a lot more conflict than this world has ever seen. That may be the one way to unite the world's various religions against a single common enemy-- you. Equal education for everyone would be great, but just what will you be educating them in? And why would they even bother going to school if they have nothing to gain from it? More, who would pay for this? But back to eliminating religion resulting in the elimination of conflict, why do you say religion is the only cause of conflict? Religion is an excuse for conflict, but scarcity is the real cause. War started when one man looked at another and said, "I want what you have." Eliminating religion won't solve that problem at all.

Besides which, what will the people believe? You will be required to institute your own religion, even if you don't call it such. You will instill in them your own set of beliefs which will become a religion of its own. Unavoidably, people will start to question what it was you actually said. It won't take long after you die before different sects pop up, some arguing one interpretation of your teachings, others another interpretation. Over time, the differences will compound and there will be dozens of new religions all over again.

8. How will you switch council members at their will? Being on the Council would be the most powerful position on Earth, and indeed the only opportunity left for advancement of any kind. Either you are on the Council, and thus in control, or you are not, and thus are no different than anyone else. Why would anyone on the Council ever willingly step down? And even if they do, how do you get the approval of all the people? There will always be dissenters, and in a "newly established republic" covering the entire world, there will be dozens if not hundreds of candidates, each with millions of supporters, for any one position. For evidence, look to any democracy in the world today. Complete agreement is impossible.

9. How do you figure this? The more that the Council controls now, the more it must control in the future. A governing body never willingly relinquishes control, and the more it controls, the less the people will be able to control on their own.

10. Who decides what counts as a harmful device? Certainly bombs, guns, knives... butter knives? Forks? Cars, since they can be crashed into buildings or people? Computers and the internet are certainly harmful, since they allow the spreading of ideas that run counter to the Council's will. Even a plow can be used as a weapon. Will you take away all technology, every advance humanity has made since the Stone Age? And how will you force people to forget? Someone will always remember, for at least a generation.

11. If there are no inventors to create harmful things, there will be no inventors to create useful things either. Society will stagnate and will never move forward. But, I doubt that's even possible. Invention is human nature. We will always look at a situation and ask ourselves, "How can I do this better?"

12. How can you brainwash someone when you have no technology, no media, no way to pay for education? The people won't have time to be brainwashed, they will only be striving to work enough to feed themselves. And then when what they achieve is stripped from them and "redistributed," they will do nothing, and will starve. Anger will resurface from your redistributions if from nothing else. Needs and wants are infinite-- look at American society right now. The more we have, the more we want. You cannot meet all needs and wants, and as long as wants prevail greed will continue. Plus, again, how do you get rid of dangerous materials? A rock can be dangerous if thrown at someone's head. So do you get rid of all the rock in the world, or just chop off everyone's arms?

This was a fun little exercise... With so many holes it was impossible to resist. I fear I may have rambled a bit...

Answer 4

This is my other Yahoo! account, just wanted to post something extra. I personaly would not like to be part of this plan, I'm part of a wealthy family and love winning and seeing others lose, just so you answerers know, I'm not a fan of Hitler or Mao, I just think this could work. It would never be done, but could it be theoreticaly possible, maybee. And to one of you, cut out personal will for gain through brainwashing. Although being on top is fun, one day something will need to be done about the bottom.

PS I did read Anthem, I thought their ideas were terrible.
PSS I think my plan is too harsh too, just like life

Answer 5

I believe with the amount of greed and selfishness in this world, stopping poverty is only a dream. there should be no reason for a country as rich as the U.S. to have people in poverty. Instead of fighting unnecessary wars in the name of oil, and making killing a science, we should feed these people and prevent the death of innocent children. That is something i will never understand , is a starving child.

Answer 6

It will never work and will end up creating even more poverty. The reason is simple: quick revolutions like the one you describe always create political instability which leads to the disruptions of the economy, thereby creating more poverty. That is why Communism failed in both China and the Soviet Union.

Answer 7

thats not a world i would want to live in...i think a freedom to choose and to achieve or accel in any thing is a basic human right. it wouldnt work anyway and the possibilty of a madman seizing control of the entire syatem and exterminating humans for the good of all would be highly probable. In order for a utopian society to work, first you have to have moral, fair, and upright citizens to place into it...the society wont cause the citizens to be straight its the exact opposite. a more workable solution would be to have a very charismatic individual who could communicate and find common ground among the worlds various religeons and tie them all together into one..causing all or most of the worlds individuals to unite in peace....then they could work out poverty...poverty wouldnt exist if everyone upheld moral values based on a universally accepted religeon.

Answer 8

I hope you are not serious. The world you describe sounds like an incredibly miserable place to exist. I say exist, because that certainly is not living. If poverty is destroyed, and I'm not saying it would be, why destroy the world along with it?

Answer 9

If you have read the book "Anthem", let me know. Otherwise, are you joking? What do you mean "cut out the will for personal gain"? How exactly do you propose to go around cutting people's wills out? A hacksaw? What? Seriously, tell me how that's done, I'm very curious.

Answer 10

you wont see the end of poverty in this world ever ! the rich need the poor to feel good about the wealth