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wingedbeastRebuilding society from near-scratch is going to be a tough job. More accurately, it's going to be a combination of many tough, dirty jobs that someone has to do. What's more, at least at first, they'll have to be done low-tech, for the most part.
While you're working on getting plumbing up and running, someone will have to dig a latrine, build an outhouse, and drive a dunny-wagon to get that stuff out of town and, hopefully, to fertilizer for a farm. And, that's just for example.
So, your challenge will be to get jobs done, particularly traditionally low-status jobs. In the formation of law, Lawyers will come in because the value and the status of that job is obvious. Doctors, both legitimately educated and otherwise, will come forward due to how readily our society will reward that profession. Getting people with the training will be the tough part, constructing society so that they are rewarded and motivated will be the easy part.
The low-status, but essential jobs will be the difficult part. Part of the reason for the difficulty will be that you don't have the current, pre-apocalypse method of motivating people to do those jobs, payment with money.
Fallout shows us a world where people have agreed to make bottle caps the currency of the land. The role-playing game, Pugmire, shows us a world where evolved dogs use plastic as the currency of the land. In both cases, the object in question doesn't degrade and cannot, at current, be manufactured, marking them as things that could be used for currency.
But, on top of being stable in amount, there's also the element of agreement. Plastic is valuable in Pugmire for the same reason that gold was valuable for much of Europe's history, because other people agreed that it was valuable. That's an agreement that takes time to build.
Arguably, you are going to be paying them in food and shelter, as well as education and medical care if available. Most importantly, I want to encourage you not to limit yourself to that kind of thinking. On a moral level, it matches too closely to current slavery apologism for comfort. With things so dire as they can be in a post apocalyptic world, the moral does need backup from the practical.
On a practical level, for your society to flourish, you will want to pay your workers with more than subsistence and survival. That's because you are going to want, in addition to jobs being done, private citizens to take it on themselves to do necessary or beneficial jobs. Another way of putting that is you'll want people to start businesses, build savings, create an economy rather than a fiefdom.
Absent a currency of agreement or fiat to work with, your payment would have to be in something that can be saved away for later use. You might want to try things of practical use, such as seed, tools, plots of land, and/or animals for work or livestock. A farming base for an economy isn't a bad idea, particularly when food will be a primary concern.
I do have an idea for you either as replacement or as supplement. Pay them for their investment of time and labor with a promise time and labor in turn. For every hour they put in, they are owed, in turn, say, one half to three quarters of an hour. You don't need to give a full hour-for-hour exchange because you will be paying in food and shelter as well. But, if you're looking at the possibility of erring on the frugal side or the generous side, this is an ideal opportunity to err on the generous side.
An example for this system: Person A has put in the time, spending days digging ditches. This person has built up some work hours that can be exchanged for other people coming in to do labor. Person A's house has a broken door. Person B is a carpenter or contractor and has the necessary skills to fix that door. Person A exchanges the promised hours of work for Person B to come in and fix the door and Person B gets a similar rate of exchange for work done to work owed. Person B can, now, use that time owed to get a head start on their business, with a satisfied customer already ready to attest to their utility.
Perhaps that is idealistically stated. The point remains that, in order to both get these jobs done and seed a flourishing economy down the line, you want these jobs to be well-compensated, even if you happen to start out with the advantage of a workable currency. It's the best way to get an economy running that won't need you, as a government, to be the driving force.
While you're working on getting plumbing up and running, someone will have to dig a latrine, build an outhouse, and drive a dunny-wagon to get that stuff out of town and, hopefully, to fertilizer for a farm. And, that's just for example.
So, your challenge will be to get jobs done, particularly traditionally low-status jobs. In the formation of law, Lawyers will come in because the value and the status of that job is obvious. Doctors, both legitimately educated and otherwise, will come forward due to how readily our society will reward that profession. Getting people with the training will be the tough part, constructing society so that they are rewarded and motivated will be the easy part.
The low-status, but essential jobs will be the difficult part. Part of the reason for the difficulty will be that you don't have the current, pre-apocalypse method of motivating people to do those jobs, payment with money.
Fallout shows us a world where people have agreed to make bottle caps the currency of the land. The role-playing game, Pugmire, shows us a world where evolved dogs use plastic as the currency of the land. In both cases, the object in question doesn't degrade and cannot, at current, be manufactured, marking them as things that could be used for currency.
But, on top of being stable in amount, there's also the element of agreement. Plastic is valuable in Pugmire for the same reason that gold was valuable for much of Europe's history, because other people agreed that it was valuable. That's an agreement that takes time to build.
Arguably, you are going to be paying them in food and shelter, as well as education and medical care if available. Most importantly, I want to encourage you not to limit yourself to that kind of thinking. On a moral level, it matches too closely to current slavery apologism for comfort. With things so dire as they can be in a post apocalyptic world, the moral does need backup from the practical.
On a practical level, for your society to flourish, you will want to pay your workers with more than subsistence and survival. That's because you are going to want, in addition to jobs being done, private citizens to take it on themselves to do necessary or beneficial jobs. Another way of putting that is you'll want people to start businesses, build savings, create an economy rather than a fiefdom.
Absent a currency of agreement or fiat to work with, your payment would have to be in something that can be saved away for later use. You might want to try things of practical use, such as seed, tools, plots of land, and/or animals for work or livestock. A farming base for an economy isn't a bad idea, particularly when food will be a primary concern.
I do have an idea for you either as replacement or as supplement. Pay them for their investment of time and labor with a promise time and labor in turn. For every hour they put in, they are owed, in turn, say, one half to three quarters of an hour. You don't need to give a full hour-for-hour exchange because you will be paying in food and shelter as well. But, if you're looking at the possibility of erring on the frugal side or the generous side, this is an ideal opportunity to err on the generous side.
An example for this system: Person A has put in the time, spending days digging ditches. This person has built up some work hours that can be exchanged for other people coming in to do labor. Person A's house has a broken door. Person B is a carpenter or contractor and has the necessary skills to fix that door. Person A exchanges the promised hours of work for Person B to come in and fix the door and Person B gets a similar rate of exchange for work done to work owed. Person B can, now, use that time owed to get a head start on their business, with a satisfied customer already ready to attest to their utility.
Perhaps that is idealistically stated. The point remains that, in order to both get these jobs done and seed a flourishing economy down the line, you want these jobs to be well-compensated, even if you happen to start out with the advantage of a workable currency. It's the best way to get an economy running that won't need you, as a government, to be the driving force.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 06:28 am (UTC)The population call themselves Gands (after Gandhi) and practise a form of classless, philosophically anarchic libertarianism, based on passive resistance ("Freedom - I won't!" and "Myob!"); and a moneyless gift economy based on barter and favor-exchange, using "obs" (obligations). To perform a service for somebody "lays an ob" on them; they can then "kill the ob" by returning the favor.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 03:42 pm (UTC)Interesting idea.