My Utopia, A Social Ideal

My Utopia, my idea of the perfect society is a place where people have fewer things but those things are treasures...

We, In America, live in a very materialistic society. That doesn't bother me too much. Everyone likes to have nice things and will work to get them. Okay, that works for me. Capitalism itself works for me, in that it seems a fair exchange, most of the time--our labors, whatever they consists of, in exchange for the means to support ourselves, hopefully in decent comfort. There's really nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with competition--people attempting to make more or better goods to offer at less money, so they can get a bigger share of the market. The up-side for all us consumers is that we have more and better goods for less money! No problem there.

When capitalism works, it really works quite well. It seems most people have the entreprenueral spirit and don't mind buying into this program at all.

What we are seeing now is the tail-end of capitalism, where it has just got too big, too unwieldy in America, and the thing that now drives sales is easy credit, and most of our goods are produced elsewhere, overseas somewhere, mostly China.

Quality is kind of out the window for the nonce, I seem to notice. Everything is more and more expendable...We throw out everything, so fast.

Okay, back to my idea of Utopia:

• Everyone does some physical work of some kind, to stay in good physical condition. It mostly consists of growing food...helping to grow food. And flowers!
• All the things people have are hand-crafted locally, and are taken care of and treasured. People don't have a lot of money or extra wealth lying around, so things don't get thrown out very easily. They are used until they're used up! And all the big pieces, like furniture and electrical appliances, are built to last and very well-made and treasured.
• People share. If I have a radio and you have a television, you can borrow my radio and I can borrow your television, and nobody charges money for this. Or, we can listen to the radio together or watch the television together. If I have tomatoes in my garden and you have roses in yours, we can trade roses for tomatoes, anytime. Or, I can share my chicken's eggs in exchange for some feed for the chickens...
• Everybody has enough to eat. Everybody has enough but not too many clothes to wear. Everybody has a roof over their heads. Everybody has the capacity for cleanliness and good sanitation.
• The children have school, up to the individual child's scholastic abilities and capacities for learning things from books.
• There are lots and lots and lots of books: people spend time in the winter writing new ones!
• Artists are admired and supported by the whole community.
• There is very little crime, and most of it is kids shaking loose.
• People may argue but always resolve their differences amicably, with the help of moderators, who are people trained to help resolve differences of opinion and also the first responders in a legal sense.
• There is good health care for all, and much of it is holistic and homeopathic.
• There is a healthy attitude towards life and work and play and art and home and family.
• Nobody does drugs.
• There's some alcohol but it is strictly an adult beverage, and only allowed during certain celebrations.
• Every person in the community is a valued contributor; no one feels either less or more worthy than any other person in the community; everyone's contribution, no matter how big or small, is necessary and valued.
• All politics are local, and everyone votes in a town meeting on the issues of the day. The government is by town meeting, so there are no elected officials, other than the moderators and the lawpeople.
• Towns are sized appropriately for this situation, to about a dozen families. When the town starts to get too big, the newest folk get together with extras from other towns and make a new town.
• Towns get along with each other just fine, and enjoy mutual celebrations and visiting back and forth.

Does this sound good? Or does it sound a little too much like "Little House on the Prairie", and boring, to boot?!