Utopian States: Striving for Perfection

Based on the true story of Dee Roberts, a 24 year-old African American single mother of four living in a small Texas town when she is dragged away from work one day in handcuffs, and then dumped in the women’s county prison. The local district attorney leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her housing project with military precision. Dee soon discovers that she has been charged as a drug dealer.

Even though she has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence. She chooses to fight the unyielding criminal justice system, risking everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system.

Even more shocking are the statistics at the end of the movie. America has the largest prison population in the world. Ninety percent of the people are in prison because of plea “bargains”. Ninety five percent of convictions are without a trial by jury.

Unfortunately, threats of huge prison sentences extort people into accepting felony charges that they haven’t committed.

I personally can vouch for the pattern of judicial misconduct depicted by the movie. When government gives perks for convictions, or judges get kickbacks for sending children to the detention centers of their friends, then big change is needed. Citizens of the USA need an alternate justice system. I petition the United Nations to provide the world with an alternative.

Fact: People have the right to life and the necessities thereof.
Fact: People have the right to own property.
Fact: People have the right to a government that doesn’t discriminate.

Corollary: We need as many jobs as there are people that wish to work.
Corollary: If a government program – like free trade – diminishes jobs, they need to be replaced by government programs. {Unfortunately, a tiny majority of economists and politicians still think that free trade (trade without tariffs) does NOT cause job shrinkage. Protectionism has become a bad work as Americans have been lead to believe we are so superior that we can out produce those willing to work for less than a dollar an hour.}

Government should propose a few pie charts of the way they are going to spend OUR money and WE should vote on the chart we favor. Personally, spending money on home security and police is my least favorite way of creating jobs. To be fair, manufacturing and farming need more government money (or tariffs).

Should the USA spend a dime on manufacturing to return a quarter worth of taxes or do we spend a dollar on government jobs to return a quarter worth of taxes? It seems like a no-brainer. Money spent on manufacturing and farming produces a positive return.

1. Are the various Utopian States like those described by Thomas Mores’ Utopia?

No. Thomas More’s Utopia was based on an even distribution of property as revealed by the following quotes from his novel.

{…} “Though to speak plainly my real sentiments, I must freely own that as long as there is any property, and while money is the standard of all other things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily: not justly, because the best things will fall to the share of the worst men; nor happily, because all things will be divided among a few (and even these are not in all respects happy), {…}

{…} that till property is taken away there can be no equitable or just distribution of things, nor can the world be happily governed: for as long as that is maintained, the greatest and the far best part of mankind will be still oppressed with a load of cares and anxieties. not excepting the very persons of his subjects: and that no man has any other property, but that which the King out of his goodness thinks fit to leave him. And they think it is the prince’s interest, that there be as little of this left as may be, as if it were his advantage that his people should have neither riches nor liberty; {…}

{…} they might seem better, as certainly they are, yet they are so different from our establishment, which is founded on property, there being no such thing among them, that I could not expect that it would have any effect on them; but such discourses as mine, which only call past evils to mind and “Though to speak plainly my real sentiments, I must freely own that as long as there is any property, and while money is the standard of all other things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily: {…}

{…} From whence I am persuaded, that till property is taken away there can be no equitable or just distribution of things, nor can the world be happily governed: for as long as that is maintained, the greatest and the far best part of mankind will be still oppressed with a load of cares and anxieties. {…}

{…} again to a good habit, as long as property remains; and it will fall out as in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces {…}

The constitution of the various Utopian States grants the right to own property. Ownership is one of the natural rights. The constitution further makes it the duty of government to protect and optimize the natural rights of man. Consequently, the Utopian States is Not the Utopia described by Thomas More with the exception that both endeavor to be perfect societies.

2. Are the Utopian States socialistic?

No. The various Utopian States are not socialistic. The natural right to own property is enumerated by the constitution and protected by the government. Senior to the right to own property is the right to life and access to the necessities of life. The constitution of the various Utopian City States makes it the duty of government to ensure that all have access to the necessities of life. This right to the necessities of life does not preclude the right to own property, hence the various Utopian States are NOT socialistic.

Furthermore, the various Utopian States are all different. The constitutions are all basically similar in that government is required to protect the natural rights of the citizens. Each bill of rights may be different as the interpretation of the natural rights may be different. The constitutional methods of enforcing those natural rights may also be different. Some of the Utopian States may protect the rights of the poor more than the rights of the middle class and vice versa.

3) When will the first Utopian City State be built?

We are waiting for a billionaire philanthropist to help. Although only tens of millions are required, the philanthropist must have sufficient capital to help without hurting himself in the event the return on his investment takes years.