Story of Utopian state

By Chang Se-moon

Once there was a place called Utopia. They did not have much, but everybody worked hard and most attended church to thank God for what they had.

The place grew and now there were so many people in Utopia that they elected leaders who cared about them. They changed the name of their community from Utopia to Utopian State because it was no longer a small community. Neighbors took care of their needy neighbors while leaders made sure that the place was safe. It truly was utopian.

Strange things began to happen to the community. Elected leaders had a unique ability of sweet-talking but had no capability of understanding what was needed for a better tomorrow for their community. Elected leaders had ego but no empathy. Further, elected leaders began to wear glasses. Some glasses they were wearing were not readily visible to their neighbors. You see, they all suffered from nearsightedness, called myopia. In myopia, objects up close appear clearly, while objects far away appear blurry.

These leaders proclaimed that we needed to help the poor and developed many good programs. They began to issue food stamps to make sure adequate nutrition for the poor. They also developed housing subsidy programs to help those who did not have a place to live in. The same leaders then began to abuse those programs. They even hired workers who roamed streets asking everyone, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, to join the food stamp program during election times. To qualify for these programs, however, people started hiding their earnings. Clerks falsified incomes to allow more people to qualify for the programs. Bankers falsified mortgage-backed securities to sell more of them, which in turn made these rich bankers earn more bonus money.

As the economy of the Utopian State grew, the number of people who depended on government assistance also increased. Leaders with myopic eyeglasses could never understand why. They never really tried to. Many people who truly deserved help received little or no help, because most subsidies went to those who were running the programs, not those who needed them.

Businesses in the Utopian State also found out that they could make more money by donating campaign money to elected leaders. Some inflated prices when they sold products to the government. Others received subsidies for ventures that they knew would not work. Leaders did not care so long as these businesses gave them campaign money. They were convinced that the more they spent on businesses, the more donations would roll in. Their myopic eyeglasses worked like a magic.

As they spent money, they became more popular. As they became more popular, they spent more money. By the way, the money they spent was not their money; it came from tax revenue. When tax revenues were not enough, they began to borrow. They borrowed during a recession knowing that they had to. They continued to borrow during prosperity, dreaming that more spending would make the economy even more prosperous. When there was not enough money to borrow within the Utopian State, leaders began to borrow from other countries. Leaders were pleasantly surprised to find that other countries were willing to lend money to them. It was heavenly, although deep in their minds, they felt uneasy about borrowing so much. Their myopic eyeglasses eased their worries, however.

Well, this wonderful community called Utopian State finally reached the end of borrowing, not because elected leaders wanted to be more careful, but because lenders all disappeared. No one wanted to lend money to the Utopian State any more. No one knew how it happened. Some said it was global recession. Others said it was global confrontation. Others said it was the emergence of a new world currency that replaced the Utopian currency as global vehicle currency. Still others said that the Utopian State simply borrowed too much to pay back.

By that time, it really did not matter how it happened. It was too late, anyway. Interest rates began to rise rapidly, governments began to lay off workers, private businesses began to close, and millions of people lost their jobs. Countless unemployed stormed the streets and screamed at one another. It was truly a pandemonium. The end came like a great tsunami that no one expected until they saw the tide rising. The end came like a great earthquake that no one expected until they began to feel shaking. The end came so quickly and unexpectedly that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent it.

Ironically, the days of total collapse were about the time when the people of the community were thinking about expanding their wonderful system to the rest of the world by changing the name of their community from the Utopian State to the Utopian State for All, aka, USA.

Semoon Chang is the director of the Gulf Coast

Center for Impact Studies.