By Sagar Jayawant
In 3200 AD, long after all the trees disappeared and the air rendered irreversibly toxic due to the Great War, the residents of Cacophonia had a monumental problem. Well, it was not oxygen, and definitely not water. Those things were made artificially since 100 years and they were as good as their natural counterparts.
Money was the main problem; to tell the truth, paper currency took a hit. Apparently, papermaking technology was not perfected before the green holocaust took place. Digital technology was creating health issues with its radiations and had carcinogenic ramifications.
Bracing for a complete economic collapse in the post-apocalyptic world, a young monk named Sweekar decided to come forth and guide the world grappling with this dilemma. He mentioned that with everything gone, it is the time to keep something intangible as the basis of currency rather than the symbolic rectangular paper with dead men’s faces.
The proposal was radical and it was repulsive for most people in the top echelons of power. Established classes had their blood curdling as they could see their importance and prestige vested in traditional currency symbols diminish if the new idea was implemented.
Eventually, as people digested the notion of an intangible currency, they gave an audience to Sweekar reluctantly. Sweekar in all this time was biding his time knowing fully well that the time for this idea had come to fruition.
The President of the country Mr. Grim Desperatus could barely contain himself as to what this monk had to say. The public chamber was brimming with masses who had come from everywhere to listen to this astute monk. All the media outlets across the world were in overdrive preparing for this event.
The monk arrived alone barefoot and ignoring all the regular social customs of courtesy and small talk sat in the center in lotus posture while gesturing to the organizers to remove the unnecessary furniture. Without wasting any moment, he said that humanity has lost its way of dealing with people due to the limited system of barter and currency systems. He went on to explain that you make a transaction purely after you have the other person’s time, attention and energy.
Each person has a unique skill set which he can use to solve a problem for the next person in exchange for the services for which the former one was sought. For example, a shopkeeper can put out a list of problems they are facing and they can set these problems as the price point for the products on their shelves. All that an incoming customer has to do is let the shopkeeper know about his skills or refer him to the person that has those skills. Briefly, all transactions will be done purely based on skill-sets as a medium of exchange. In the beginning, there will be delays obviously but if people keep patience, every able-bodied or differently abled person will always be using his time, energy and attention in being busy and valuable. Then your mindset about working will purely be for creating value and building social connections. You may not have the money, but you will always have the means and the things which you had intended to buy with money. So wealth will only mean how many skills you possess.
Mr. Desperatus for the first time in his political career was listening calmly without any interruptions. At the end of Sweekar’s speech, he quietly got up and asked him to take up the portfolio of Commerce and Industry with immediate effect. Earlier Sweekar used to shun public appearances to devote himself to monastic duties. But today, he broke that rule for the greater good to help the citizens of Cacophonia.
It took close to 15 years for Sweekar to make the current generation well honed in this mindset switch. A lot of time went in making them unlearn their old way of thinking. However, once it was done, this training was imparted to children. Sweekar made the impossible possible (even Adidas got an inferiority complex ☺).
Cacophonia with this social experiment has now become the only society on Earth that has zero percent unemployment. Because of this simple mindset shift, social crimes became non-existent. For the first time in its history, Cacophonia as a name was anachronous and its inhabitants incongruous with the past lifestyle.
By Sagar Jayawant
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