There is a once-great nation in the world today — a nation seemingly strong and powerful, but riddled with internal decay. A land with an uncertain future.
This nation was founded in time immemorial by an intrepid few — settlers from a far more powerful country, who brought their culture along with them to this new, virgin land. Over time the prevailing mores and social structures would change, but in the early days the new land was in many ways very similar to the old country.
The forests, plains, and mountains of this new land were vast, but required hard work to fully develop. The first settlers of this nation prized self-improvement and expected that they would improve themselves with time. This bred a spirit of rugged individualism, but also fostered cooperation. Paradoxically, their self-reliance and desire to better themselves drove them to work together to achieve ever greater achievements.
It wasn’t long before the new nation eclipsed the old, boasting more settlers and far greater wealth, despite the greater age of the mother country. The rest of the world started to look to the new land as the leader in innovation, and immigration boomed to unprecedented heights as settlers from all over the world wanted a piece of the “good life”.
Unfortunately, with the increase of population came poverty and other social ills, and political pressure increased to provide support for the ever-increasing members of society that couldn’t seem to be productive or carry their own weight. The original culture, where skills were prized as essential for both personal and societal advantage, began to be replaced by a growing sense of entitlement — that the nation itself owed its citizens an ever-increasing standard of living, regardless of whether the people could produce it or not.
The politicians, of course, were more than willing to give in. The currency underwent severe inflation as the administration sought to assure everyone a basic standard of living, and although ever more sophisticated consumer goods became available, the prices continued to rise to astronomical levels. Unfortunately for the administration, however, the hyperinflation didn’t have the desired effect. Currency was more plentiful, but you still had to earn that currency yourself, and not everyone was able to hold a job.
The next step was to provide full employment through a menial public works program. Legions of the underclass flocked to these simpler, less-demanding jobs as a means to achieve their dreams. But this type of employment was considered unpleasant and degrading, and the citizens agitated for their leaders to provide a mechanism whereby they could work in businesses of their choice, but be guaranteed a certain level of income regardless of their actual profitability. This was a far cry from the successful giant corporations of the nation’s early days, which were large industrial enterprises that employed many workers with a high degree of competition for positions. Workers were expected to be skilled in those days and those who couldn’t pull their weight were thrown out with little concern. These new businesses were smaller, and government subsidies (at the cost of pushing the inflation rate ever higher) reduced the risk these businesses needed to assume.
In the end, even this was superseded by an almost Marxist regime. No longer would small businesses be formed via a person’s circle of friends and acquaintances. What about those people who didn’t have contacts even competent enough to file the government paperwork and go through the motions required to collect their paycheck? The government solution was to remove the limit on the number of businesses a person could be a partner in, and at the same time randomly match aspiring business owners together, in the hopes that the more entrepreneurial types would carry the load for the less capable since they could collect an additional government paycheck for a small additional amount of work.
The nation wasn’t quite at “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”, but it was close, and getting closer. Could it really take long for them to take that one final step?
What’s that? Oh, right! What nation am I talking about?
Why, World of Warcraft, of course!
![phil[1]](http://www.wigdahl.net/quern/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/phil1-300x171.jpg "phil[1]")
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