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RE: Looking Backwards: Chapter 11
Isn't it kind of telling though, that the musical dream expressed here was surpassed by capitalism soon after this book was published? In fact, the groundwork was being laid as the book was being written. When vilifying capitalism, we tend to look at the disparity between the poor and the rich and seeing that as the injustice, but when doing so, how often do we overlook the ability of the system to raise the living standards of the poor as well? 5 years after this book was published, phonographs were available to the public. Long before the idyllic time of 2000, high quality music was available to every member of society.
Now that the supply lines are laid, we can simply keep working, but stop paying.
As long as the shelves continue to be filled, nobody would notice the difference right away.
This book retained crapitalism, but, the state kept a record of credits and the use of money was in the background because everybody got one share of the collective work, which was more than most needed in a given year.