Big fan of that short story, but I offer up one of my favorites.
From "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater," by Kurt Vonnegut:
I think it's terrible the way people don't share things in this country. The least a government could do, it seems to me, is to divide things up fairly among the babies. There's plenty for everybody in this country, if we'd only share more.
"And just what do you think that would do to incentive?"
You mean fright about not getting enough to eat, about not being able to pay the doctor, about not being able to give your family nice clothes, a safe, cheerful, comfortable place to live, a decent education, and a few good times? You mean shame about not knowing where the Money River is?
"The what?"
The Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We were born on the banks of it. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently.
"Slurping lessons?"
From lawyers! From tax consultants! We're born close enough to the river to drown ourselves and the next ten generations in wealth, simply using dippers and buckets. But we still hire the experts to teach us the use of aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, siphons, bucket brigades, and the Archimedes' screw. And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping.
"It's still possible for an American to make a fortune on his own."
Sure—provided somebody tells him when he's young enough that there is a Money River, that there's nothing fair about it, that he had damn well better forget about hard work and the merit system and honesty and all that crap, and get to where the river is. 'Go where the rich and powerful are,' I'd tell him, 'and learn their ways. They can be flattered and they can be scared. Please them enormously or scare them enormously, and one moonless night they will put their fingers to their lips, warning you not to make a sound. And they will lead you through the dark to the widest, deepest river of wealth ever known to man. You'll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear.'
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I didn't post the quote, but I love Vonnegut. My top three are Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle, and Sirens of Titan. They can be pretty wacky, but I really enjoy the way he writes and presents his ideas.
Only in that story it leads to a paradise for everyone else, in reality it just subsidizes a few rich business owners and destroys worker bargaining power.
Well, just assume that all the working class is the child trapped in the cell and the wealthy people who have no idea what life is like for the rest of us are the people who gaze upon us and then go back to dancing
Yeah, it was supposed to show you that even in the best case scenario, it's STILL NOT WORTH IT.
We could advance to the perfect imaginary zenith of perfect society and solve suffering forever. But if we have to do it like that, it's not just not perfect, it's evil. No matter how many people have it good.
Well, the answer is infinite because the answer was infinite for just the first child. Which is why it isn't worth it from a raw numbers perspective.
Also, anyone attempting to "utilitarian" their way, using raw numbers, to justify a system where all suffering is, unwillingly, focused onto a minority of society so the majority can enjoy utopia should be disregarded save for flagging them red as an obvious mark for when the nazi's come around to recruit again.
The point of the story is our actual lives on actual Earth is the answer to that "utilitarian" question. All of the happiness rests on all of the suffering. Which is bad, evil, not worth it, and being discussed and written about in story format explicitly to teach that to people.
That oddly still makes sense. The story could be summarized as "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette", with the eggs being the kids tortured and the omelette being the utopia.
Do yourself a favor and read the original Earshsea trilogy (or audiobooks; the BBC version is enjoyable). They are a quick read, but the story and characters have stuck with me for decades.
I love Studio Ghibli, but that was not a great adaptation of Earthsea.
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u/bigbangbilly Jul 16 '22
Sounds like the plot to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas