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C00002 00002	rich.ess[f86,jmc]		How a rich society can live well
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rich.ess[f86,jmc]		How a rich society can live well

	Perhaps because of equalitarian social conventions or maybe
for some other reason, the rich aren't exercising the social leadership
they formerly did in informing the rest of us about how we will
live when we all have more money.  The purpose of this essay is
to speculate about the standard of living of a mature rich
society based on technology based on today's science.
In this context maturity means that there has been considerable
time for capital investments to accumulate.

1. Neighborhoods.

	a. Complete separation of roads from walkways.  This only
costs capital investment.  The roads are all sunken relative to
the pedestrian level.

Security.
	a. The society is sufficiently self-confident about its
commitment to freedom of thought and tolerance of variant life-styles
that don't threaten others to permit whatever level of automatic
surveillance may be required to make streets, parks and public
facilities safe enough so that adults and children can use them
free of fear of crime.

Note: I won't suppose that a society in which everyone is prosperous
will be free of crime.  That would be nice, but social science cannot
presently assure us that this will be the case.

Safety net:

	A rich enough society can afford to give everyone a stipend
for which work is not required, provided that the necessary uses
of the stipend do not involve too much human labor.