Unemployment and utopian abundance

[balmung60]

Or theft of artworks, which by definition are non-replicable.

But are they?

"Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called "moral value" of the art itself. Nothing can transcend its smallest elements." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan

 

[Pseudopod]

Normally 90% of the red M&Ms have a full time job in middle management, as law-enforcement, or other sort of jobs that allows them to feel superior economically or socially.
The last 10% are already criminal, because they are the kind of people who want more than others.
Under UA those 90% is forced into crime to have that same feeling of economic superiority.

Are you really saying you do not think that these people will not exist in a UA society?
The school bullies. Jackass bosses. Powerdrunk cops. Corrupt politicians.
Some people just want to be ahead or to see other people have less.

And while there aren't more of them, as you correctly say, under UA they have no other option than crime to get their sense of superiority.
You're completely ignoring my line of reasoning with absolutely no arguments.




You realize pops are unnumbered to allow imagination to take hold?
In any given society they might be anything from 1 individual to 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 individuals.

A few thousand people might litterally be the entire population of a galaxy spanning empire.

Hah, you forgot the completely reasonable option where 100000000 pops is actually one single individual!

But they weren't abusing those powers.
They used their higher income and social status to lord over what they saw as lesser people.
Then UA came along and equalized them with those they felt superior to.

The only way back into a position of superiority would be through crime.

You're again ignoring what I'm actually saying, and then putting words into my mouth. Classy.

So the option of getting better at politics and rising through the political system no longer exists? If non-material goods are so important to 10% of the population, why aren't they trying to rise in the hierarchy of power? Let 10% of the other 90% that doesn't feel the need to impose their wills on others be among the unemployed instead.

Furthermore, I always have the option of giving these "desperate to become emperor" persons even more consumer goods than usual, and somehow, this completely eviscerates their desire to become emperor of the universe. So it turns out all they really wanted was consumer goods after all!

 

[Direbrew]

I don't know if UA should eliminate crime completely all by itself, but it should certainly put a massive dent into it. I mean, we're imagining future societies so technologically advanced they can imprison stars, blow up planets, convert their entire population into robots, etc. etc., this goes incredibly far beyond just a modern welfare state/UBI/living wage, it's starting out at Star Trek levels of abundance and only going up from there until we hit The Culture.

And okay, maybe some people decide they want to become crime lords, but that hinges on having things to provide the state can't, and even if e.g. drugs are illegal so what, there's going to be a million other ways to get the same entertainment or high or whatever, just go in VR Blorg Kink Sim XIV. The people who decide they would like to be Supreme Galactic Emperor are going to be no different from the same people today - cranks, crackpots, and politicians, but UA will still hamper them all because it's a lot easier to recruit a desperate underclass to your cause than pampered, well-fed, comfortably-homed, endlessly entertained people.

 

[Acheron]

@Direbrew agreed, with Utopian Abundance, a ton of motivation for crime goes away, and it is difficult to run a criminal empire with just a handful of crackpots, each seeing himself as the next emperor.

 

[beckermt]

But are they?

"Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole, indistinguishable from the original in every way, including the so-called "moral value" of the art itself. Nothing can transcend its smallest elements." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan

Unless anyone places value on the piece of art being the thing the artist actually created. You can't replicate that property (since it's non-physical) of the work.

Alternately, if some of the value of the object stems from its personal history. Although the concrete used to construct the Berlin Wall was in no way special, the pieces were special by virtue of their association with that larger whole and the ideas behind it.

 

[powerofvoid]

But they weren't abusing those powers.
They used their higher income and social status to lord over what they saw as lesser people.
Then UA came along and equalized them with those they felt superior to.

The only way back into a position of superiority would be through crime.

That sounds like it's just, "authoritarian factions hate Utopian Abundance more than Social Welfare, which they hate more than decent living standards, which they hate more than stratified society". Unhappy pops are a source of crime independent of unemployment.