Tani Newton
As the world around us becomes almost overwhelmingly evil and insane, perhaps we need to take a break from it occasionally to ask ourselves what better world we might hope to be a part of one day. I believe that the present world order will fall – that is, I think that we are living in the fall of Western civilisation. But I don’t think that this is the end of the world. I think that there are better things to come and that it is very far from escapist to have practical conversations about a better kind of world that we or our children might help to build.
In this article, I want to look at just two things briefly – health care and education.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about something my mother told me when I was a child: in ancient China, people only paid their doctors as long as they were well. If they got sick, they would stop making their regular payments to the doctor until they were well again.
I’ve no idea where my mother heard that or whether or not it’s true. But it strikes me, even more now than it did then, as vastly superior to a health system that rewards doctors for keeping their patients perpetually sick. Surely it is the kind of model we could be contemplating. It could be seen as disadvantageous to people who don’t get sick very much, but then those people are probably enjoying life more and able to make more money, and they might decide to pay their subscription and so contribute to helping the less fortunate.
Here’s a daring thought: What if education could operate in the same way? For those who don’t know me, I am opposed to schools and think they shouldn’t exist. But I can also see that they could have a place in a free society without government control of everything. Would it be possible to have a school where parents pay a subscription as long as their children were learning things, and they could stop paying if they weren’t satisfied? Or what about a school where you could just take your children to whatever classes you want them to have and you could stop going and stop paying if it isn’t worthwhile? In fact, why would it have to be only for children, when adults want to learn things too?
Perhaps this sounds a bit 1960s idealistic. But I hope that it can start a discussion. Let me just be very clear that what I am proposing here is what people could voluntarily do for themselves; not anything that could be achieved by state power and the force of law. That needs to stay in its own corner and mind its own business.
And for those who can remember Camp Freedom in Wellington, or who have heard about it from others, we actually had a real-life demonstration of how a better society could work. If it wasn’t very much like what I am suggesting, let me know in the comments.
