STEP 1: SHARING RESOURCES

The first step to take in the direction of RBE is to declare all the earth’s resources as common heritage of all the earth’s people. No single individual or corporation would have exclusive rights to any of the earth’s resources. Neither will they need to. Access would be preferred over ownership.

As a very basic analogy, let us take the example of an online library. Once the library is open for all, and all books are available to everyone, we would save tremendous amounts of energy, resources and trees that would otherwise go into printing and distributing those books in multiples. People will have the option of printing small parts of certain books as and when they need to. Without the motive of profit (when there is no need for ownership, there is no need for profit), the knowledge contained in those books will be available to all, without a price tag.

Apply the same analogy to our transportation systems. If a city is designed intelligently, i.e. vertical space is utilized well, it becomes a smaller, more compact city, and transportation becomes easier. The need for personal cars is eliminated, and the resources we spend to make these cars can be used to make highly efficient public transportation systems instead. Not to mention a tremendous waste of resources is also prevented, by not having throngs of cars sit idle in parking lots all day. Technology today is already making things smaller, faster and smarter. If we think of the first computers that took up huge rooms and had limited computing capacities, and we compare them with modern-day mobile phones, we find that human ingenuity can create anything out of limited resources, without compromising on functionality or luxury. Therefore, by sharing resources and using them intelligently, we’d be able to provide adequately for everyone on earth.

Every human being needs food, clothing, housing, transport, education, medical care, relaxation and recreation. Today’s technology, once released from the restraints of profit-centric patents, can create abundance in all these areas. Hydroponics, for example, could feed the world many times over, utilizing a fraction of the space used in conventional agriculture today. Technology also has the capability of discovering alternatives for resources or materials that are actually scarce.

STEP 2: ABOLISHING BORDERS

If we really think about it, we don’t really need borders. They serve no purpose to the common man. To politicians and corporations, they spell profit, but not to you and me. Consider this. India’s current defense budget is Rs. 1.4 trillion, compared to its health budget of Rs. 200 billion. However, majority of deaths in the country are not caused due to borders dispute, they’re related to health disorders. This gives a clear indication of how skewed our ‘national’ priorities are, and also how wasteful it is to have borders at all. It is crucial to understand that this is true for countries on both sides of every border. Once borders are eliminated, all ‘defense’ resources of material, time, energy, and intellect, could be directed towards sustainable, efficient and safe housing, transportation, education, health, sanitation, recreation and several other things that really matter, for all of humankind. Borders are man-made lines on a map. They’re not real, and only provide an excuse to kill one another in the name of defense or patriotism. While the defense industry and political campaigners continue to gain heavily, claiming the lives of our loved ones who devote themselves to protecting these ‘borders’.

Abolishing borders will also allow resources to be freely accessed, utilized and benefited from, by everyone on earth, not just by a particular group of people. This is for everyone’s good. For instance, if a nation has a lot of iron, it cannot survive on that alone. It needs a multitude of other vital resources. This is where the role of equal sharing and common access comes in.

Technology is driving us to become global citizens today, and the more we interact with others, the more we realize how similar we are in our day to day needs and challenges. We must realize, most issues today are global issues. If a neighbor country has an unstable government under which people are deprived and starving, there is bound to be infiltration across borders, and there will be violence. We are all connected, in our victories as much as our failures.

STEP 3: TECHNOLOGY & AUTOMATION

Given the current rate of technological breakthroughs around the globe, once the limitations put by a price tag or profit are removed, human labour can be gradually phased out completely. Human labour is a major cause of price tags of products and services, apart from scarcity of raw materials, and the energy consumed in manufacturing and distribution. Today we have the technology to automate manufacturing. Combined with advanced cybernation, the whole process from procuring to manufacturing and distribution could be automated. This would truly set mankind free to live a fulfilling life, without the need for mindless labour, servitude or drudgery. People would be free to do what they want to do, not what they have to do.

As far as energy is concerned, once the same automation is applied to renewable resources like tidal, wave, wind, solar or geothermal, then price tags, debt, exchange and servitude would all become obsolete. Because their very root, scarcity, would disappear.

By combining the three steps mentioned above, we will be able to abolish scarcity – the root of nearly all social evils on earth. Once everything is free, there would be no reason for theft, crime or corruption. People would not need to be rich or powerful to live a happy and fulfilled life. Hence the need for politics, power struggles and greed would vanish. After all, nobody ever gets greedy about oxygen, although it is the most vital element to our survival. No one stores, owns, or overuses it just because it’s free. By using resources scientifically and responsibly, everyone would be empowered to live a life of luxury that even a modern-day billionaire would fail to imagine. And of course, a life of peace that’s a long time coming.