‘What do you understand by the expression, The human family, Jenkins?’
‘It was that time in the early 21st century when the world came to its senses, sorted out the world economy and started the programmes that today ensure everyone has enough to eat and access to education to any level that they are capable of.’
‘Excellent answer Jenkins’ said Gaylord Fairfax who was Head of History at the Kathmandu Academy.
‘Creep,’ muttered Ardeep Singh from the back row.
‘Did you have a comment you would like to share with us?’ enquired Gaylord with a raised eyebrow.
‘Not really sir, I just said how much I agreed with Jenkins’ excellent answer to your question.
‘Liar,’ exclaimed Iqbal Murad who didn’t have much time for Ardeep.
Gaylord didn’t hear this last so he went on, ‘The rest of the lesson will be a lecture from me on how this transformation of the world’s economy was achieved. You may take notes and I will be asking questions during next week’s lesson.’
‘The trigger for these changes was the collapse of the Eurozone in 2015 after Greece defaulted on her sovereign debt and then Portugal, Spain, Italy and France quickly followed suit. All these countries had to quickly reissue their old currencies and devalue them against the German/Finnish Euro so that their debt was nearly wiped out and they became competitive again. This caused catastrophic depressions and unemployment in all of those countries. No country could afford a large public sector so most of those jobs were either privatised or just not done – after all, what had the government economists and politicians achieved?
I will take the UK as an example of what was the common way forward. The tax system was simplified – everyone paid 13% of their earnings to the government. There were no allowances or tax shelters or paperwork so no civil servants were required. Every month you paid your 13% in cash to the treasurer at the local town hall. Anyone cheating was shot – dead.
The country was run by a committee – of one - otherwise known as a dictator. She could only be replaced by a petition from the town halls that gained majority support. She had one secretary. There wasn’t much dictating to do so hers was only a part time job.
If she wanted to start a war, she had to be in the most dangerous position in the front line – there were no wars. The armed forces were dismantled, who were they protecting us against?
The NHS was very expensive to run so it was contracted out to B & Q. Self help was encouraged, anyone overweight was automatically suspected of treason as most people were hungry most of the time. Over 60’s got 10% off their operations and medicines on Wednesdays on production of their senior card at the check out. The demand for medical services reduced dramatically as people became healthier.
The country was determined to save fuel by not importing any and also to become carbon neutral. This was done by every town and city having to be self sufficient in food and fuel. This resulted in a lot of digging in gardens and the price of houses with South facing roofs increasing dramatically. Toilets could only be flushed with grey water and all fresh water was metered and very expensive. All rainwater from roofs was collected. Any water sent to drain was metered and charged for.
Shale gas was exploited all over the country from previously unknown reserves, following the Blackpool model. Windmills appeared in previous Nimby places. Old coal mines with typically 60% of their reserves still in place were reopened using the new in-place gasification technology, no men needed to go underground. Anywhere burning coal had to put in place a CSS system – carbon sequestration and storage. The depleted North Sea oil reservoirs were ideal for this.
Ten years into the transition a strange effect was detected in the country. Everyone was healthier and happier, partly because of the restricted calore diet of mainly fresh fruit and vegetables and a lot of physical work in their gardens and fields. Because people worked closer together at physical labour, communities sprang up and people helped each other. Extended families grew as younger ones saw the value of learning from the oldies experience. Care homes were mainly closed down.Television programmes were turned off as soon as it got dark, partly to save electricity and partly to encourage people to go to bed and get up again with sun set and sun rise. More children were starting to be born between September and December.
People became happier, they talked to each other and became involved in neighbourhood activities. Yes, they had less money but that didn’t seem to cause unhappiness, they were all into it together. Local schools were set up, evening classes boomed as people demanded to learn lost craft skills from each other.
The few cars and trucks were electrical. Internal combustion was banned. All the excess wind power at night was used to charge car batteries, ready for the morning.
After ten years the economy grew and the UK started exporting its main asset, knowledge.Every UK university had premises in several countries. The global language was now English, the old fashioned tongues such as French and German had been abandoned. English schools and Academies opened and thrived all over the world. There were no artificial bars to entry – if you spoke English and could afford the fees you were in. If you couldn’t afford the fees, your local government would probably support you with a scholarship – everyone knew the value of a good education.
The girls and women who had been educated now put pressure on their men folk to improve the agricultural methods to grow more food. Medicine improved, less children died and so there was no need to produce many children so the birthrate dropped, meaning more food to go around.
A national debate started in the UK on the proposition, ‘Do we want to try the Euro project again?’
The answer was a resounding ‘NO’ from 97.43% of the UK population. The question was never asked again.
No one took PPE at University – why learn a failed system?
For the first time in human history, there were no wars. The Human Race was a family at last.
How had the politicians got it so wrong in the first place?
I wonder how much of this will come to pass! The B&Q health care is surely a must!
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