Every time I see some well-meaning folks advocating "tax the rich!!" I wonder, why not think big and abolish money instead?
Money isn't merely a symptom of poverty, as Iain Banks pointed out: money creates poverty—there's a potentially infinite supply of money generated by allocating debts and issuing credit, but only certain people are permitted to accumulate it.
We need a better resource allocation system; "tax the rich" is a sticking plaster prescribed for a heart attack.
@Madagascar_Sky @cstross it's interesting how the perception of the Culture has gone from "how radical, AIs are citizens just like humans!" to "Aieee, humans are just pets to superintelligent AIs!"
All because Iain Banks hinted that some Minds secretly thought this, but a lack of structure meant it was moot. A ship would still respect the decision of its passengers, and the Culture was a very boring place to live.
No matter how much you respect your dog, how much you allow them to make their own decisions, they are nothing more than a pet. All the higher level decisions, protection, analysis, etc. was done by the AIs. The chasm between humans and the AI was too great, they were by their circumstance reduced to nothing but pets, roaming around in a world not of their making or of their control.
Charlie Stross
Madagascar_Sky
Marc Etienne