“. . . AN GULLIVER RETURNS”
--In Search of Utopia--
BOOK 5--SMASHWORDS EDITION
OUR VISIT TO SINGALING
by
Lemuel Gulliver XVI as told to Jacqueline Slow
© 2008 ISBN 978-0-9823076-0-1
Dear friends—Obviously I wrote this series to be read from Book 1 to the end, but silly me! Readers often begin with what sounds interesting to them. This may leave them unaware of the characters, my friends and I. So let me introduce us. We were boyhood friends, as wild and as close as geese heading south for the winter. But our university educations split us philosophically like a drop of quicksilver hitting the floor. But like those balls of mercury, when brought together, they again become one. As have we.
Ray
became a Catholic priest and moved far to the right of where our
teenage liberalism had bound us. Ray calls himself a
neo-conservative. We think he is a reactionary.
Lee slid to the left of our
adolescent leanings, and somewhere along the line became an atheist.
Lee is a lawyer.
Concannon, Con for
short, retired from his very successful business. I guess his
business experience moved him a bit to the right, to conservatism—a
conservative just to the right of the middle.
Then there’s me. I think I’m
pretty much a middle of the roader—except for my passion to save
our planet by reducing our population before global warming, massive
poverty and far-reaching famines decimate our humanity. Hope this
introduction makes our discussions make a bit more sense. LG
THE COUNTRY OF SINGALING
From one of the two most advanced countries of the world to the other. Singaling, just off the Malay Peninsula, tooled its philosophy from its successful island neighbor, Singapore. I had visited Singapore a few times before my flight, but had never touched foot on Singaling. We arrived on an early Monday morning and were surprised to have the Prime Minister meet us in person. Father Ray, my reactionary priest buddy, Lee, our atheistic lawyer friend, and Con our conservative comrade—four close friends for forty years are eager to continue our journey.
—“Mr. Yuen, good morning. I’m
delighted that you took your precious time to meet our scraggly clan.
We are so excited to be here and learn about your country.”
—“Commander,
we are honored that you have included our fair land in your
itinerary.”
-“We
are honored that you extended your kind invitation.”
—“Your
bags will be sent to your hotel and I can give you a tour of our
capitol city if you would like. Just step into my limo and we’ll
be off.”
As we toured the streets of the capitol city I was reminded of the country I had just left. The magnificent buildings were monuments to the most creative thoughts of modern architecture. The pastel hued apartments were a colorful backdrop for the glass, wood, brick, and steel buildings which were the hub of the world's most prosperous nation.
But what impressed me most was the cleanliness of the place. I swear by the gods of Tide and Tidy Bowl that I never saw a single piece of litter on the ground. There were no graffiti on the walls, no gum on the sidewalks. Of course gum chewing carries a thousand dollar fine in this country so the habit has become less and less fashionable. I do wonder, though, what do teen-age girls do with their mouths between sentences. In my dear home town of Los Angeles the "valley girls" would definitely suffer withdrawal pains should their beloved chewy companion be suddenly jerked from their lips.
Singaling enjoyed a long economic head start over Kino and is still leading the Asian derby in finance and trade. Again, the Asian intelligence and work ethic have pushed it far past its rivals in the West. Population control was probably a major factor in its rise, but was not as essential to its economic miracle as it had been for China..
Even back in the early 1980's Singaling had begun a program for population control. It began with allowing every couple two children. If they chose to have other children the parents, not the state, were responsible for paying the education bills for the additional children. The state laid down an additional detriment to additional children. If the parents had a third child, the state would not lend them money for a home. These rules kept most families to two or fewer heirs.
Singapore, Singaling’s country cousin, or cousin country, had cut births to such a degree that it began importing labor from countries like Bangladesh to do the lowest level work. Major corporations set up shop and dropped wages to maximize profits. Low paid Singaporeans took the same wage drop as immigrants. This prompted the government to think about reducing the rich-poor gap. But such communistic ideas have as yet had little effect on this free enterpriset power. In contrast, Singaling has emphasized the importance of producing only at the top tier of the economic echelons.
Sociologists tell us that it takes 2.2 children per family to keep the population stable. By limiting families to only two children a society might insure itself of a declining population. In Singaling the population has dropped as its economy has increased. This is not surprising because we have found for a number of years that the educated classes of most societies have fewer children. It seems that for a many people the joys and challenges of business, politics, and the professions are often greater than the joys and challenges of parenthood.
The liberation of women around the world has allowed them to run from their homes and compete with men in every field. And while traditions die hard, and the happy expectation of parenthood hides within most of our breasts, the economic advantages of having children have disappeared and the realities of the true costs of a child play on the minds of all intelligent parents. Before I became a solar-naut the cost of having a child for a middle class couple in my country was more than $100,000 to get the child to college age. When considering the costs of food and lodging, clothing, medical bills, a larger house, and the salary which the caretaking parent had to give up to stay home--it is easy to understand how expensive a child is. Now, with the inflation rate approaching 25% in the U.S., it costs millions to raise a child through high school. And to send that child to college doubles that.
While doing its best to discourage an increased birthrate, Singaling went a bit farther. It long ago decided to attempt to increase the level of intelligence of its population. The attempt at eugenics was aimed at getting the highly educated women, those who were having fewer children, to become multiple mothers. Free education through the doctoral level was guaranteed for their children, if they qualified academically. Paid maternity or paternity leave was offered or up to five years. The caretaking parent, whether father or mother, was offered additional education for advanced college degrees after the children were in school. These were powerful incentives aimed at increasing the quality of the population while decreasing the quantity.
The Singalingians were, even then, on the right track for developing a modern economic force and reducing the ecological concerns which had long engulfed our planet. Working drones were not needed in our earthly hive. Even in the 1970's machines could do the work of many high school graduates.
It struck me over the years of visiting the former Soviet Union that little old ladies were given jobs sweeping the streets with their long brooms, while in my country a single person at the controls of a mechanical street sweeper did the work of thousands of little old ladies in a single day. Machines plucked and packed the fruits of our orchards eliminating the imported laborers of the earlier days. Even in the 80's robots welded our new car bodies pushing those human welders out of the factories and into other jobs. Electric trains took the shovels from the coal shoveling firemen on the old English trains. And how many years was it before the British government was able to get rid of those firemen who were being paid but had no coal to shovel?
Certainly there were jobs for high school graduates as nurses aids in the homes for the aged. There were jobs as housekeepers and gardeners. There were jobs making up the rooms in hotels and working in fast food emporiums. But the efficiency of technology had taken over most of the work of the stoop labor farmers, the conductors on busses, and many of the jobs of the building trades. Increased technology had given us better building materials and cheaper methods of construction. Consequently many of the painters and carpenters were no longer needed. The same thing happened in other trades. Most printing jobs were done from a computer disk--not from typesetters.. And this technological evolution has accelerated to the point that many countries have unemployment rates of over 50% now in 2020.
The result of the production of too many babies, and babies without the intellectual capacities to profit from the advanced educations available today, has resulted in a population a third larger than the 6 billion that existed before my voyage. Added to this is the fact that medical science has been able to extend the life spans of a great number of people. So we have far more people living, but far fewer working. Many workers have then been taxed to the point where it isn't worth working. That is why so many of the highly trained professionals of today have emigrated to the advanced population controlled societies such as Kino and Singaling.
To reduce the lower level intellects, the government of Singaling offered heavy financial rewards for sterilization. First they developed a highly refined intelligence test. Everyone took a version of the test every year in school. We can compare it to our Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests. While their tests and scales were different from ours, perhaps it can be better understood in our terms.
The results of the tests were put on a scale like the bell shaped curve which we use for sampling populations. They then offered financial incentives for those on the lower end of the scale to voluntarily undergo sterilization. For males or females with no children for every point on the IQ scale that a person was below 110--a point at which the top 18% of the intelligence group is separated from the bottom 82%--the state offered three months of salary or $10,000, whichever was greater. Not many people near the 110 level took advantage of this. But by the time you got to the 100 level--the point which half of the people in the population are above and half below, you were rewarded with 2 1/2 years salary or $100,000. This became a highly desirable alternative for many people. Of course those very low on the intelligence scale could be rewarded with many hundreds of thousands of Singaling dollars. Just think how many watches and rings, and clothes and toys, you could buy with so much money. If a person took advantage of the financial offer after having had a child, the sterilization stipend was reduced by 75%.
In societies where the severely mentally impaired are institutionalized, the costs are exorbitant. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent for each patient. Singaling significantly reduced its caretaking expenses for this often genetically transmitted intellectual anchor. The rewards for sterilization saved far more money than they cost because their caretaking expenses dropped so dramatically. And of course the children not born because of the sterilizations would not have children, so the world’s future burden was lightened.
While the money paid in these incentives came from taxes, it went right back into the society which produced the goods, so nothing was lost. The tax rate, in fact, became progressively less and less of a citizen's income. Welfare spending was almost non-existent, as was spending on jails and prisons. Education expenses were high, but the return on the investment in education was so great that it paid for itself quickly. Singaling had developed a perpetual motion machine in the financial arena. It had high incomes but low taxes. It had happy people and almost no crime. It was the closest thing I've seen to a utopia.
I was privileged to have an audience with the Minister of Population of Singaling. She told me about how they had extended their earlier efforts of population control. Today a license to have a child costs two months wages and cannot be obtained until after a stable relationship has been shown to exist for five years. The prospective parents are generally at least 30 years old.
Naturally courses in child rearing are required. These are offered in the universities and in other schools and are sponsored by the government. The courses range from the highly technological aspects of heredity and disease control, to the more personal aspects of relationships such as loving and caretaking.
But the government has gone a step farther in certifying a person to be ready for parenthood. The authorities have developed a test on loving which every hopeful parent must pass successfully. The test not only registers one's knowledge of how to love and what a loving reaction would be in a number of situations, it is accompanied by practical observation of the person to determine whether the prospective parent has the types of inferiority feelings that are so often associated with needing to beat another person down--either physically or psychologically.
It seems that most people have a drive for power, for success, for domination, that is usually fueled by their inferiorities which were often developed because they were not loved as children. So the lack of a loving parent begets another unloving parent and the cycle continues. Child beating, spousal beating, gang killings, and I think even sarcasm, generally find their origins in a lack of a loving home. The Singalingians are attempting to stop that cycle and I applaud their quest.
In their efforts to stop pre-marital pregnancies they have made it illegal for a couple to have sex until they are 18, unless married. The punishment for violating this is 6 months in jail, a large fine, and 20 strokes with the cane administered by a martial arts master. There are also strong traditional proscriptions against pre-marital sex. Together these laws and rules have been highly effective in reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
If a pregnancy does occur either an abortion or an adoption will be arranged. The biological parents, being unlicensed to have children, cannot keep the child. The government may, after testing the biological parents for intelligence and genetic problems, decide that the baby may be worthwhile. If so the baby is kept for adoption by those who have passed the licensing test but have been unable to conceive. If the parents do not pass the test, the fetus is aborted and the parents are sterilized. And neither of those parents will ever be able to obtain a license to have a child.
The Singalingians, as their neighbors in Singapore, are quite adamant that the laws which are to benefit society will be adhered to by the members of that society. And while those who might choose to leave this advanced country are free to go, there are few countries willing to take in anyone who cannot contribute economically. The massive overpopulation which is choking the earth today does not allow for most people to move to greener pastures--unless they can bring their own seeds and fertilizer. Immigration for all but the exceptional has been cut off in every developed country today.
If unmarried people over 18 want to have sex their license fee is one week’s salary. They then receive free condoms and spermicidal, anti-disease creams. There is a strong governmental desire to stop the spread of AIDS and the other pandemic sexually transmitted diseases that have killed so many millions of people throughout the world. In Singaling the government wants a high quality of children--then when born, they want to keep them, and keep them healthy.
The rewards of living in Singaling outnumber the frustrations of the short sighted self centered desires which most people on the planet hold. Every family owns an attractive high technology house. Parks and recreation facilities are found throughout the cities. The high incomes of the workers allow travel and vacations in the finest resorts of the world. Indeed the Singalingians, per capita, spend more money on vacations and travel than do the inhabitants of any other country. The self-centered desires which do exist are amply satisfied.
But are they happy? "Yes" is the nearly universal answer. They are the most prosperous people on earth. They hold the interesting and challenging jobs necessary to keep their country as the intellectual and scientific leader of nations. And they are raising the most intelligent and loved children on the globe. They have done this through a strong social value system that praises intelligence and rewards education. This is so different from my country which has mired in the mud of self centered desires and ‘rights’ and has lost its role as the scientific and intellectual leader of the world. As an American I am greatly saddened, but as a citizen of the world and of the cosmos I must shout a strong "hurrah" for those who have sought the higher ground--and won it.
Singaling has joined Singapore in its Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Researchers from around the world clamor to be allowed to work in either country to find the cures that science will uncover. For more than 15 years stem cells have been harvested and available for export throughout the world. Singapore established itself as a leader in stem cell research and Singaling has gladly joined it. Research is speeding along on Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, many cancers, diabetes, and a number of other diseases and handicaps. And the two governments are the leading investors in the projects. The financial brakes the Bush administration applied in the U.S. floored the accelerators of other advanced nations when they realized that the major medical researching country had had its tires shot out. American researchers and other medical leaders streamed into southeast Asia for its open door policy for immigrant geniuses. The election of the highly intelligent Barak Obama was not enough to keep all of the intelligentsia. The American depression had sapped its economy of the necessary funds for research. Putting the voters to work, and getting the banks working had to be the priorities.
I understand that in Singaling the shift in interest to medicine is somewhat economic, since the electronics manufacturing industry, that once was its bread and butter, has taken a bit of a financial hit. But the shift here was not slowed by nebulous religious thinking that has hampered the U.S., that new methods of medical research are somehow against the will of God. Also, the quick profits that American companies usually seek is not a factor in the minds of the Oriental leaders whose multi-millennial history is not based on the pragmatism of profit found in the West. But, as you might expect, profits followed and multiplied as incredible cures were discovered.
As you might also expect, this efficiency of ideal and process did not come from copying the’special interests’ government of our country. We may call our government a democracy, but our leaders can be chosen without a majority vote. Sixteen of our presidents have been elected without a majority. Two of them twice, Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson. Most have been rather undistinguished, but Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy are generally well thought of. In fact Lincoln usually ranks as our best leader. But then, George W. Bush, our worst leader, was also a minority president. Guess it just shows that a democratic system is a hit or miss system for choosing a leader. I wonder if we should just let Las Vegas set the odds on who would be the best leader, then go with that!
It is effective people-oriented leadership that is essential for a modern society. Plato’s philosopher kings set a standard, but few leaders want to follow the thinking of an oligarchy. They want to man the tiller alone.
Lee Kuan Yew, the ‘father of Singapore’ was a highly effective leader. After Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, the British educated leader led a population of Chinese, Malays and Indians to developone of the top economies in the world. Without natural resources it was a seemingly impossible task requiring insightful leadership and the hard work of the population. Along the way he suppressed some free speech, held a lid on the press, sued and jailed some rivals, and often suppressed other freedoms that we in the West deem essential. But if it is results you want, an orderly highly functioning society with an outstanding economy, you can’t argue. Pragmatism, rather than an idealistic ideology, has been the secret of Singapore and China. The question is do you want to focus on ends or means. If the end justifies the means, the development of these Asian economies are hallmarks to that concept.
In the West we are facing similar questions. Does increased security that may save our lives warrant invasions of our privacy, like cameras placed throughout a city or having to undergo searches at airports. ‘Ends versus means’ will become more and more of a problem as life and death issues from terrorism, global warming, increasing crime and population aging become more threatening to us all.
But back to my city tour. Mr. Yuen let me take in the city and be lost in my thoughts. He finally broke his silence and brought me back to reality.
THE AGING WORKFORCE
—“Commander,
I know you are concerned with population problems. Aging and its
attendant problems are a major drag on modern societies and their
economic and social systems.”
—“No
question about that. We discussed some of the problems and solutions
with Dr. Wang in Kino.”
—“You
just have to keep workers in the trenches. Everyone but the Western
governments think that our life-spans will increase. The early
retirement incentives you Westerners are using to make way for
younger workers are counterproductive. You just have to reduce the
number of potential young workers. We recognized that some years ago.
Your pension planners are making promises they can’t keep. The
advances in medical science are so great that people are not wearing
out as early as they used to. If knees hurt, put in new ones.
Intestinal problems?, fix them with stem cells. Alzheimer’s?,
dissolve the plaques with medication. We have tried to minimize the
early retirement problem two ways. We reduce young workers by
licensing parents and we give large financial incentives to those who
want to leave this life through euthanasia. They usually bequeath
their accrued pension money to their child.
“Your Western youth must now save more and spend less. They must pay for the medical and retirement expenses of your current retirees while saving more to pay for their own medical and retirement expenses. (1)
“As medical technology increases the cost of treatments, both governments and individuals have to determine just what payments they will make. If a 99 year old retired coal miner needs a new heart at a cost of $200,000, should the government pay it all? Should the individual pay part? We found that when the government paid all the expenses the individuals were more likely to have the procedure done. If the individual was required to pay for part, through his purchased insurance or his savings, he was less likely to have the procedure. When there is no cost, there is a nearly universal patient eagerness for treatment.
“I’m sure you know about the graduated insurance premiums that Kino has. We have some similar ideas. We have incremental increases for dangerous practices such as--smoking, excess alcohol consumption, moving traffic violations, even sport participation. Of course some sports carry much higher dangers than others. On the plus side, we have positive adjustments to the insurance for positive health habits. Swimming a kilometer four days a week is very positive and reduces insurance premiums. Soccer has positive effects from its aerobic conditioning but negative effects from the potential leg and head traumas, so it results in a net negative for one’s insurance premiums.
“Like Kino, we let the individual choose, but then don’t bail him out if he didn’t prepare for the unfortunate illnesses and accidents that are always possible. In spite of the fact that we self-centered people would like the government to take care of us all, no society can afford it today. But it does make for a popular topic on the campaign trails in your country.
“But it’s not only about health care. Public pension funds have been insolvent for years. Politicians in democracies like to promise more benefits along with lower taxes. A fanciful fantasy without fiscal foundations. It’s Mother Goose without her accountant! Longer lives, earlier retirements, higher pensions--the things that dreams are made of!
“It’s getting worse in all developed countries as people are working about 40 years then are retired for 20 or more years. To make the pension fund pay for itself a worker would have to contribute about half as much every month as he or she would get when retired. So from a monthly gross pay, assuming that a worker wanted a retirement income of 75% of his working wages, there would be about a 35% deduction for a pension, an income tax deduction of say 20%, and a deduction for future medical insurance. This would leave about 25 to 40% of the worker’s gross wages—or about half of what he would make when retired. Not a huge financial incentive to work.”
“We have no forced retirement. This saved us hundreds of billions of dollars. Just look at the UK’s pension problems. Public sector pensions in the UK amount to about a trillion pounds. That’s two trillion dollars. This is paid from tax receipts These unpaid pension liabilities are equivalent to about 40 thousand pounds per household. Another way of saying it is that it is about 80% of a year’s gross domestic product.
“More and more people at retirement age want to work. A friend of mine at the California State University joyfully goes to work every day at 85. He is an outstanding teacher and is still coaching an intercollegiate sports team. I met a world class medical professor in his 80s at Tromso University in Norway. He was forced to retire at 70 but works daily at his old job. The university pays for his office and laboratory, but he is working for 65% of his former pay and doesn’t share in the pay raises of the other professors. Another Norwegian professor of my acquaintance was forced into an undesired retirement at 70. But there was no one to teach her classes or work with her doctoral students so she was hired as a consultant, at more than her previous pay. So with her pension, she was costing the state about twice what she would have cost if she had been allowed to avoid retirement. The Scandinavian rationalization was that his retirement made room for a young assistant professor. But about fifteen years ago Norway removed the retirement requirements. It saved on pensions and kept talented experienced professionals in their jobs and .so profited doubly.
“In Singaling we have always allowed talented people to stay in their jobs and earn professorial wages. If we needed another professor or administrator we would hire him or her—and we don’t have near the money that Norway has. I don’t know why your politicians think that people must be forced into retirement so that young people can get jobs to pay for those who are already retired. If happy workers don’t retire there is no need to have other people working. We pay them their normal wages with raises. Of course having people working past their retirement ages saves the country money since it isn’t paying them pensions. ”
—“I’ve
seen the statistics on European and American workers between the ages
of 50 and 70. At 50 about 90% of men were working. By 70 almost no
men in Belgium worked but in Japan 50% were still working. In Belgium
even by age 60 only 25% of men were working. But in Japan 75% are
working at 60.
“In 2000 when I left, in the U.S. ten people joined the work force for every six who left. By 202510 new workers will enter the workforce for every 13 who leave. We have to keep more older workers in the workforce. I understand that you give them a percentage of their retirement pension if they work, starting at age 70.”
—“Right.
It is a non-taxable partial pension and increases every year—up to
50% by age 85. Because most of our people enjoy their work, they
stay. We have tried to do as Arnold Toynbee suggested. ‘The
supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.’
Did you know that in your own country the number of people working
after 65 is increasing seven times faster than the over-65
population. Finances are often a factor, but enjoyment is also a
factor.”
—“We
certainly have a problem with the so called ‘baby boomers’. There
are so many of them. After the Second World War the fertility rate
went up to 3.8 during the twenty years after the war. That started
impacting Social Security and Medicare about ten years ago. Today, in
2025, the impact is meteoric. It is not only their dipping into the
social purse, they are often looking for more handouts from the
government. And their voting block has real power. They are pushing
hard for anti-aging medications and opportunities. They want to live
longer and better.
“A major problem is to find the causes and cures for Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cancers and all the other problems that end life or make life less bearable. So far we haven’t been able to eliminate the age-old mental and physical effects of living longer. Living forever doesn’t mean being eternally youthful. It reminds me of Homer’s recounting the Greek myth of the Trojan Tithonus who was granted eternal life by Zeus. He didn’t die, but his body and mind continued to age. Senility left him as a babbling skin-wrapped skeleton. Is this what we all have in store? In the U.S. we have had a 500% increase in people over 85 in the last seventy years.
“I always wondered why the fairer sex, who outlive us by several years, are allowed an earlier retirement. Seems to me that they should be required to retire later! I guess it’s just another example of fuzzy thinking by our actuarially ignorant lawmakers.”
—“Don’t
forget disability retirements. I have some lawyer friends that make a
living getting mental and physical disability retirements for their
clients. ‘Stress’ retirements are a common way of getting a full
retirement at a much earlier age. And the truth is that many are not
disabled and could easily work at another job—in fact many take on
a second job after getting their disability retirement.”
—“It
is your Western liberal thinking that assumes that everyone is honest
and everyone is entitled to whatever they want. Our more autocratic
administration in our representative democracy doesn’t require that
we give any benefits without an unqualified and justified reason. We
are charitable, but not stupid! Look at Germany where two-thirds of
the men have retired before the legal age through disability and
other such loopholes. Over a third of Englishmen and over a quarter
of Dutchmen have also taken such early retirements.
“We are now operating under these retirement provisions and they are working. We gear pensions to our life expectancies and our pension contributions. Retirement at age 70 is at 60% of earnings. For every year of earlier retirement the pension is reduced by 6%. For every year of later retirement the pension is increased by 6%. We decided that for the good of our nation’s economy we can’t penalize work. We must not penalize those who want to work past retirement age.
“In just five years, by 2030, 20% of your U.S. population will be over 65. Your increasing population drives cars more, sits in traffic more, creates more global warming and increases the wait time in traffic. There’s nothing good about your increasing population—and you think you are the world leader, the super power.”
—“You’re
preaching to the choir Mr. Yuen. But you are right that the more
people we have the greater the increases in government expenses,
about a half trillion dollars has been allocated for highways to
handle the increased traffic.”
—“At
least some of your people are buying pollution free vehicles from us
or from China. We are so far ahead of your people with fuel cells,
natural gas and photovoltaic power. Some years ago the Beijing
government listed developing clean fuel autos as one of its major
priorities We had preceded them by several years.
ROBOTS
“As you have seen, robots are a major part of our economy. We not only create and manufacture them, we use them extensively. It started with using them to manufacture and package our electronic products many years ago. Then we developed them in larger versions to manufacture autos and airplanes. Then we got into the humanoid business. Our humanoids are waiters, guards, cleaners, teaching assistants, carpenters, cashiers, and a whole lot of other things. We are perfecting many of the previous medical uses of robots for surgery. They do the work of physiotherapists in exercising stroke and other paralysis victims. They work many more hours a day than the live therapists can. So the patients get 6 hours of therapy instead of just a half hour. Robots do the work of most high school graduates and many college educated people.
“Hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, restaurants, in fact many of the service industries, profit from the use of robots, costs are reduced, and efficiency is increased. They are essential to reducing the burgeoning expenses of modern health care.
“Along with Japan and some very creative people in your country we are making manual labor a thing of the past so we don’t need the low level workers that are being popped out of the willing wombs of Third World women. For Japan it is a godsend as a way of substituting for the unborn workers that the Japanese needed.
“As you can see, our economy is far more multi-dimensional than is Kino’s. They lead the world in photovoltaic solar power and fresh water nanotechnology. We are still into telecommunications and computers, but we are among the world’s leaders in non-polluting transportation and a number of robotics possibilities. And as a peace loving nation it is strange that we are a major researcher and producer of surveillance and tactical robots. Our solar powered robot controlled drones are spying the world for a number of countries.
“Your Department of Defense has been our major customer. Both air surveillance and ground work. The Iraq War ruined the American public’s tolerance for real soldiers driving mined roads and being shot at while making door to door searches. Maybe the next war will be our robots against their robots. So we will have even less need for real people.
“On the home front, for years we have had robots that understand simple language. Now we are working on robots deciphering non-verbal language, like one’s tone of voice or understanding arm and hand movements. We are humanizing the plastic souls of the rambling robots. The questions now revolve around whether to get rid of their rollers and give them legs, and just how human we want them to look and act. Too much reality often fosters fear. Not enough reality also fosters fear and a lack of confidence. So just how far do we go on the path between the basic metal armed rolling barrel and the reality of Disney’s standing, moving, talking Abe Lincoln at Disneyland.
“Korea has been a leader in the domestic uses of robots. Today every Korean home has at least one robot. Among other things they teach the children math, science and English. We use their robotics technology extensively.”
—“Korea
leads in a lot of electronic areas. The country was the first to have
border to border wi-fi. Everyone has a camera phone. Heck, the
security is better than in the UK with all their cameras. But that’s
another issue. Let’s get back to workers. Do you allow guest
workers?”
GUEST WORKERS
—“Guest
workers are allowed when needed. Some are low skilled and work in
restaurants, hotels and in the fields in jobs where we don’t have
robotic help. All are tested for IQ, if high they can be trained in
high level areas, like computer science or medicine. They get the
same pay for the same work as our citizens. They have two taxes
deducted from their pay. One is to pay for our older retired workers.
All workers in the country pay this tax until we are on an effective
‘pay as you go’ program. But the guest workers also pay a second
retirement tax that is for their own retirement. It is taken with
them, with interest, when they leave the country after they are no
longer needed.
“Guest workers are not allowed to have children or have their families with them. They are not allowed citizenship. On the other hand we do invite some high level researchers into the country. They are sometimes, but rarely, allowed to apply for citizenship.”
—“I
know that your country has followed Singapore’s earlier approach to
population control for some time. Can you give me an idea of what
their program is?”
POPULATION CONTROL
SINGAPORE’S PROBLEM
—“Lee
Kuan Yew was the greatest national leader of the last few centuries.
In his 31 years as Singapore’s leader he transformed the country to
a modern industrial power. Singapore should not exist. It has no
natural resources, only a stalwart work ethic and a workable vision.
“As Lee said, ‘Singapore’s strength is that it is ideology free and it is pragmatic.’ An orderly, progressive, and economically strong country was his goal. If a theory worked he continued it, if it didn’t he modified it or discarded it. His approach was undoubtedly the major successful tooling of a society-based modern utopia. Communistic socialism was tried by the Soviet Union, China and a few other countries. But it was never successful. Trying to take Karl Marx’s 19th Century library generated ideas and fit them into the realities of the economically diverse 20th or 21st Century couldn’t work.
“In today’s world the pragmatism of America, formulated philosophically in the works of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey, gave guidance for a system of government based on scientific principles. And I think that Singapore surpassed the U.S. in its use of a pragmatic approach to developing an ideal society.
“I would guess that you might disagree with me. Many Americans disagree with our ban on public gum chewing. Maybe we wouldn’t have had to ban it if self-centered people didn’t leave their used gum under tables and chairs in public places or spit it out on public sidewalks and streets. There is no question that our country is cleaner because of it. We don’t rank gum chewing as a basic freedom. We want order—this will upset selfish people who are concerned only with their own pleasure. But there is much more societal happiness and contentment when selfish individuals are curbed for the good of the whole society.
“Mr. Lee’s later concern was in building dikes to prevent the flooding that global warming will bring. Half of the island could be submerged. With his son, who is now the president, he keeps looking for ways to bring money to the island. Although he is against gambling, he looked to bring in casinos to make the island a vacation destination. But he wants to keep out the other negatives that follow gambling enterprises, like prostitution and organized crime.
“Mr. Lee felt that the president should be the highest paid person in the country. The current president makes $2 million a year. That’s eight times what your president makes. Do you have a question Lee?”
—“From
your founding president Lee Kwan Yew on, your presidents have been
worth it. I can think of only a few of our presidents who were worth
what we paid them!”
--“You
may have a point there, Lee. We are also paying our president a great
deal because Singaling, like Singapore, is vulnerable to so many
factors, like the world economy and the rise of China’s economy. To
survive and progress some things have to be controlled. Freedom of
speech and of the press are lovely ideals, but the energy used to
answer the critics can be better used to advance the society. We only
have so many people and so many hours in a day. If we use them to
fight capital punishment or animal rights, we can’t use them to
make business plans or obtain foreign financing. I think that some
countries are so busy chasing their political tails that they can’t
move forward. Your lawyers, journalists and media headliners keep too
many of you focused on the periphery and you forget your main
goals—having a happy and productive society. You just can’t have
everything. Do you want the matching accessories or
the dress, do you want
the relish or
the hamburger, do you want the alloy wheels or
the Volkswagen? It would be nice to have everything, but no society
has the assets, the personnel or the time to do it all. We opted for
the basics.
.“Ask our citizens whether they would trade our high quality schools, health care and incomes for more gum chewing. Just look at your country. Would your national debt be less, your stock market higher, your dollar worth more, your individual buying power more if you hadn’t borrowed from China to finance your recent wars and tax breaks? Your leaders didn’t look at the long term trends and possible outcomes, you focused on the immediate political interests. Look what it has done to your economy and your international prestige!
“While China develops relationships in Africa and Asia, your country is busy antagonizing one of the world’s major religions. We look to survive and prosper. Is that wrong Commander?
“And our pragmatism permeates other areas as well. For example, homosexuality is accepted as a way to control the birthrate. Still we don’t allow homosexual parades. It would be a parade with no real purpose.
“Our values are rapidly changing. Confucian values served us well for 2500 yeas, but today’s children have left them behind. And that’s not necessarily bad. But we have to bring with us the less affluent, who are more likely to hold both the old quasi-religious Asian ideas and to be less socially concerned. They are the ones we aimed our laws at when we prohibited spitting or throwing garbage on the street. We had to pull them into the future. The difficult part was getting the people to change their habits so that they behaved more like first-world citizens, not like third-world citizens spitting and littering all over the place. It all happened because we were poor. If we were rich in natural resources we couldn’t have pulled people up like we did. People had to progress through their own efforts, with our help. They needed guidance.
“We have learned much from Singapore about population control. Since the mid-1960s, Singapore's government has attempted to control the country's population growth rate with a combination of publicity, monetary and other incentives and disincentives. As in other more advanced countries, the drop in death rates and the typical high birth rates showed a national growth rate of 3.4% with an additional 1% from immigration . This was over sixty years ago. By 1965 the growth rate dropped to 2.5%. But it was still too high.
“The government increasingly saw population growth as a negative for living standards so it stepped up its efforts. It saw that more children just increased the expenses of more schools and more medical facilities. It also realized that it would have to provide more jobs for more people. When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 it became more aggressive in population control. It set up the Family Planning and Population Board which was responsible for public education on family planning. Birthrates fell until the mid-seventies, then began to rise as the wartime baby boomers reached child bearing age.
“In 1970 abortion and sterilization were legalized. Population disincentives were instituted.
When a third child was born to a couple, hospitals charged more for the birth, maternity leaves were denied to government employees, and there were no more tax deductions after two children. There were no longer preferences for public housing for larger families.
“On the incentive side, smaller families got preferential enrollment in the best schools. Single children and children whose parents had been sterilized got higher priorities. Voluntary sterilization was rewarded with a week of paid vacation and a priority for education and housing. Along with these incentives, publicity campaigns urged parents to ‘Stop at Two.’ There was also the strong message that large families threatened the future security of the family. Poor people were also targeted because the penalties affected the poor even more than the rich. They were encouraged to use their limited resources on the couple or on only one child—increasing the chances that the one child would eventually escape their poverty.
“Fertility declined to the replacement level in the mid-70s then continued declining. As happens when population decreases, income increases, education levels rise, women become more important in the work force as their maternal duties evaporate, and infectious diseases decrease.
“In 1988 Singapore’s population hit a low and has continued to drop. It hit 1.4 per woman and was headed for Hong Kong’s level of 1.1. As educated women are allowed into the workforce, and find it more rewarding than cleaning toilets and small noses, the burden of motherhood falls primarily to those whose major accomplishments are non-academic but rather athletic,--primarily bedroom gymnastics. Globalization has often increased the cost of living. This is another reason to forego having children who cost a great deal and opt for income rather than outgo, for vacations rather than home additions and for relaxing evenings rather than helping with homework and solving the days problems of school.
“With more than 50% of Singaporean women in the work force, and over 80% of Singaling women working, you can see why the fertility rates are low. This not only affects motherhood and child raising, it also affects eldercare. Women used to have the caretaking responsibilities for both ends of the age spectrum, and everything in between. Today society must provide the caretaking for most people.
“Since the eighties the Singapore government has panicked over the possibility of a reduction of the real Singaporeans. Like your country where you fear the reduction of your Anglo population. The Britons, the Germans, the French, the Chinese all espouse the wish to keep their populations as ethnically pure as possible while their native populations are reducing and their perceived economic needs are increasing. Forget the idea that all men are brothers or that we all are products of the same African origin.
“So the low rate of population growth began to concern the pragmatic government because it did not want to rely on immigration to fill the possible population void in fifty years. College educated women were much less likely to give up their interesting jobs to become barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Marriage for the male university graduates was more likely to be with less educated women. Typically men, because of their typical gross insecurity, marry below their station. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew exposed this national problem in 1983 when pointing out the necessity of marrying best to best and producing even higher level offspring.. He then offered preferential education to the offspring of college educated women. To help this along the government established a Social Development Unit to act as matchmaker for unmarried university graduates. At the same time he offered $10,000 to less educated women if they would be sterilized after the birth of their second child. Certainly a wise approach to voluntary eugenics.
“A few years later the preferences for children of the educated ran into a wall of unpopularity. The government abandoned the idea, then in another year or two the government decided it now needed more children so the ‘Stop at two’ motto was replaced with ‘Have three or more if you can afford it.” Government incentives were reversed to reward larger families. Tax rebates were given for third children. Subsidies for daycare were initiated and priorities for education and housing were now being given to larger families. Paid maternity leave reappeared. Abortion and sterilization were discouraged. But because of later marriages, the lack of desire of successfully employed people to change their lives, and a general lack of fascination with parenthood, the fertility rate dropped to 1.45. The same factors that exist in other economically developed countries were also present in Singapore. The disappointed government warned the people about going ‘passively extinct.’ More publicity emerged, this time telling of the joys of marriage and parenthood.. By 1989 a $20,000 tax rebate was announced for a fourth child.
“The more recent Singaporean slant is that having children is now a duty to your society and yourself. Some members of parliament call non-parents irresponsible. While the government has been using carrots to cajole the reticent re-populators, it is now using the stick to beat those who made personal decisions to not have children to make societal decisions to have them. It has been suggested that childless couples be forced to make extra contributions toward their old age needs because they won’t have children to take care of them.”
SINGALING’S POPULATION CONTROL
“In Singaling we realize that we must do our part to reduce world population. So while we lament the loss of our natives, we were never ethnically pure. Like Singapore we were Chinese, Indians and Malays. We have always had our fair share of Europeans and Americans. As our population has decreased we have been lowering the bar for immigration. By that I don’t mean reducing requirements, in fact we have been raising them. We are just allowing more people to apply.”
—“What
kinds of requirements have you put in place?”
—“We
are still in the process of formalizing our new requirements. But we
put education and demonstrated high level scientific output highest.
As a non-religious society we don’t accept highly religious people,
particularly those who believe they have the true religion and will
try to convert our citizens or who will agitate to make our country
into a religious country. It just invites problems. If things are
otherwise equal in terms of their desirability, we give preference to
Asians, particularly to Chinese and Indians. It has been obvious
throughout history
that we all want our families and our societies to be as similarly
ethnic as we can. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, it breeds
contentment.
“If people have immigrated and integrated into our society we might invite them to apply for citizenship. It is our decision, not theirs. They would have to demonstrate that they accept our Asian respect for authority and order. If they are too concerned with individual rights they won’t fit in. We want the whole society to evolve in terms of rights and freedoms, while keeping the societal goals of order and productivity foremost.
“But we aim for contented happy people. We are not just about economic leadership. People need
meaningful relationships with each other. They also need to feel that they are part of the government, the whole society. We want loving relationships between husbands and wives, or between partners. We want parents and children close throughout their lives. People need to have good friends. We emphasize developing caring relationships. We do it in schools and in the media. We use your Dr. Bill Cosby as a paragon as to what can be accomplished in a family and in a society. In fact we have used him as a consultant in our educational and parenting programs in helping us to develop both a curriculum and methodology for teaching. We want to take the teachings of Confucius to the next level.
“As you know the internet and the Western media keep pushing the selfish motivations. These conflict with the greater societal goals. And the outcomes for the individual are much greater in a well ordered caring society than in a laissez faire anarchy.”
—“We
just spent a number of hours with Dr. Wang in Kino discussing such
conflicts between the self and the society.“
—“Yes,
I know her well. We have consulted with her. She has recognized and
approved of what we are doing.
“Traditional Asian values, actually Chinese values, have been called upon—just as your country’s leaders bring up religion to make their points. But we don’t accept the ancient values that don’t make sense today. For example, the words of Mencius have been vomited from the past to remind us that of all the major duties we should have to our society ‘not having descendents is the worst.’
“Other leaders call on the tradition of ‘a baby being a product of love’ and that every marriage that has love must have children. Forget looking at the financial and psychological costs, just do it. Don’t bother to look at the research that shows that for most people children cause more economic pain than pleasure. To combat this, some legislators proposed television dramas showing the joys of parenting. Clearly they wanted to use the most effective political techniques to change the minds of the reticent reproducers.
“It made me wonder whether any babies are the goal, or just loved babies who are products of stable relationships. I also noted that it was the male parliamentarians, not the females, who were pushing the procreation cart. I wondered what their wives’ opinions were. Since women bear the brunt of pregnancy and most of the work of child raising it is easy to see why men are so much more pro-children!
“Because we are so much influenced by Singapore I wanted to show where they were then discuss how we have approached the problem. Our young people also are not as preoccupied with parenthood as were their parents. So our birthrate has dropped. The difference with us is that we are more cosmopolitan in our thinking.
“In Singaling we are not so concerned with being ethnically pure. We are more concerned about economic progress and the future of the world. We therefore are more likely to allow immigration. But we don’t take in everybody. First they have to apply as one needed in our economic system. If they are approved they must learn both English and Chinese. We send them the materials they need to learn the languages. They are also tested on their knowledge of our customs, history and philosophy. Then they have to be ready to immerse themselves in our society and to integrate totally. We are not looking for a diverse population. Immigrants’ backgrounds give us enough diversity.. We definitely don’t want religious or cultural groups protesting our reality, a reality with which we all are quite satisfied. Also, it is only on rare occasions that an immigrant can become a citizen.
“You know we also have licensing for parenting. Ours is a bit different from Kino’s. We want to allow licenses to every level of our society. We don’t want to be accused of genocide or eugenics. But admittedly it is more difficult for the poorer people to meet the financial requirements. As I mentioned we have government paid voluntary sterilization. But we also have financial grants from the government for those who are exceptionally qualified for pareenthood.
“Some might call it genocide for Africans or Latin Americans if licenses were required in those area, but when food becomes more expensive because of increased fertilizer prices due to higher priced petrochemicals, when gasoline prices rise because of scarcity of oil, food will go to the wealthy so the poor people will experience more famine than they already do. They die one way or the other. And it may be their own fault since only Africa and Latin America more than doubled their percentage of the world’s population during the last century. It is no surprise that these are Third World areas dominated by the religions of Abraham.”
—“Certainly
the short sighted leaders in those regions will call it genocide. But
aren’t you worried about losing your native population?”
—“Certainly
we are saddened by the state of the world’s overpopulation and we
would like to keep our own population stable or increasing, but we
have to look at the world’s situation. Somebody has to take the
lead in putting their money where their mouth is. All those people
lamenting the overpopulation problem but unwilling to look into their
own backyards need someone to lead. We hope we are the leader. It’s
like global warming, it needs to be reduced just don’t tell me what
kind of car to drive, how much to drive it and don’t make me change
my home thermostat to alter my comfort zone! People need leadership
to take them out of their selfish closets and bring them to the
reality of global destruction and the possible end of the human race.
Hopefully it is not too late. It makes me wonder about the
intelligence of those billions of human ostriches who seem to think
that tomorrow will be like yesterday--a yesterday with no global
warming, no terrorism, no famines, no water shortages, no nuclear
threats. That ‘once upon a time’ era may not have been utopian,
but it certainly didn’t hold the specter of destruction that
today’s world holds. We are just trying to be that wee voice from
the wilderness that holds an example of what might be. Hopefully
other countries will follow our lead. Certainly the higher incomes
and better lives of China, Kino, Singapore and Singaling should show
the world that economic success is much more easily obtained with a
reduced population.
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