What if everything were free?
Nothing has a price, and the tills are gone. It sounds like paradise, right up until the shelves are empty by ten in the morning.
9:15 on the first morning. The last of the bread.
Day 1
At nine in the morning the price tags come down. By noon the shops are locked, because there is nothing left inside. The people who got there first went home with eleven televisions. Everyone else went home with nothing.
The first arguments of the new world are about queue-jumping.
Year 1
Bread is free, and gone by evening. A flat is free too, if you can wait six years on the list. Nobody is paid any more, so nobody volunteers to collect the bins, and the unpleasant jobs are handed out by rota.
Money is gone, but favours take its place. Knowing someone who works at the bakery is worth more than a salary ever was.
Year 10
Some cities have made it work. They plan carefully and ration fairly, and nobody goes hungry, although nobody gets exactly what they want either. Other cities simply deleted the prices and hoped for the best. They are not doing well.
Children have never seen a price tag. What they know by heart is the delivery timetable: bread on Tuesdays, shoes in March.
Who wins
- People who couldn’t afford the basicsFood and medicine no longer depend on what’s in your wallet.
- People with time to queuePatience is the new currency, and pensioners are suddenly rich.
- Anyone with useful friendsA cousin at the warehouse beats a university degree.
Who loses
- Whoever arrives secondThe first person through the door took everything.
- LandlordsThere is no rent. The flat goes to whoever is next on the list.
- Busy peopleIf you work all day, you can’t stand in line all day.
“Free” only removes the price. Somebody still has to bake the bread, and there still isn’t enough of it for everyone. Without a price, you pay with your time.
Would you live here?
100% said yes · 1 vote
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