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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
How would this work in practice? Take my infant nephew Bilal. He would be born with a billion Tokens. Note we do not use money in this system as it tends to get soiled. Tokens will be coins made of the same titanium alloy used to make hip prostheses. The astute reader will understand the symbolism of this choice of material. Bilal's billions will be spent on any item that gives him pleasure but is not a necessity. Thus titanium alloy rattlers are in but diaper genies are out. Parental misuse of Bilal's billions risks time on Ryker's Island or Maggie's farm. Given his nonverbal status at this age financial outlays are likely to be minimal. The funds will be allowed to grow in Vanguard's balanced index fund that follows the efficient market hypothesis elucidated by Eugene Fama and uses the assest allocation principles of Harry Markowitz, both Nobel laureates from the University of Chicago. Once Bilal learns to speak his wish will be his command within the contraints of his account. A huge advantage of the new system is that it capitalizes (pun intended) upon what Einstein called the miracle of compound interest in a manner that was hitherto impossible. Thereby the wealth of the global nation will be significantly increased with trickle-down Reagonomics doing the rest to ensure that no baby in Bangladesh dies of hunger. As for Bilal he could have that red choo-choo whenever he wants. Or for that matter an S-Class Mercedes complete with trophy wife. This example sounds sexist, however the system is not. Token allocation is based upon the simple fact of birth and not gender or any other privilege or lack thereof. Thus the trophy wife target through the accident of market timing may have compounded more tokens than Bilal and may be able to buy him as trophy husband instead.
Arif 9:01 AM
One of the major difficulties with capitalism is the tyranny of old age. Take a peek into any S-Class Mercedes not driven by a chauffer. At the wheel you will find either the twenty year-old supermodel trophy wife of a sixty year-old excecutive or the sixty year-old executive himself. What about the rest of us normal twenty or thirty year-olds? Or for that matter the normal forty year-olds, for in my book forty is still young? Why can we not have such possesions? A huge improvement on the current system would be to invert the age pyramid. Have children possess huge amounts of wealth that graduallly declines to nothing at the time of death. Of course we could avoid the Marxist lack of productivity incentives by making the rate of decline inversely proportional to personal productivity.
Arif 8:00 AM
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