PROUT Village / Chapter 1: Preamble

Prout Village is a social system that replaces capitalism and socialism, a system in which money does not exist.

War, poverty, destruction of nature, climate change, and many other social problems continue to occur around the world. When we think of solutions for each one, the realization of a peaceful society seems far away. However, if we realize one point that is the root cause of all these problems, we can see that the solution is actually simple. The root cause is the "money system," and the cause of all social problems can be traced to whether or not money can be made and whether or not funds are available.

For example, when countries fight with each other, it is because they prioritize the national interest, taking resources and turning them into money. When politics becomes corrupt, there is always some kind of money involved, such as bribery. Corporations cannot survive without making profits from their products, so the depletion of raw material resources will never stop. As for the problem of nature destruction, the employees of the companies that destroy nature are ordinary citizens who need to earn money to live, so they cannot stop working even if they know that they are destroying nature. The problem of deforestation is that individuals and companies are free to purchase land, and in some cases, trees are cut down in order to make money from the trees and land. As for the overfishing of fish in the ocean and changes in the ecosystem, fishermen, whether legally or illegally, have no choice but to continue fishing because they need to earn money to live. As for the garbage problem, for example, companies that produce food sold in supermarkets cannot continue to run their business unless they continue to earn money by making consumers like their products, so they emphasize the appearance and safety of their products through excessive plastic packaging. As a result, the amount of garbage from households increases, the amount of garbage that cannot be incinerated increases, and the amount of garbage dumped into rivers and oceans increases. In the case of electronics and other products, they make them in large quantities so that consumers can buy them immediately. This is better than making customers wait and losing out on profits, but it also increases the amount of inventory that is thrown away. As for the issue of long working hours, employees need to earn a salary to sustain their lives, so if the company orders them to work overtime, they have no choice but to comply. There is also no way to prevent the problem of income inequality, since some people are good at making money in the first place and others are not. This is the same as the fact that some people are good at exercise and others are not. Also, the reason why theft and drug dealers do not disappear is because they can profit from it and earn a living. The reason why there are people living on the streets all over the world is because there is no money. The problem of Japan's declining population is also due to the fact that the country's interests and profits will decrease in the future as the labor force decreases and the country becomes less competitive. The decline in pension benefits and the collapse of the pension system are also money-related issues. When a city is destroyed by a natural disaster, reconstruction also requires money and delays because it is necessary to consider whether the local economy will be viable afterwards.

Many people around the world have come up with solutions. However, the number of social problems is piling up, not decreasing. The root cause of these problems is ultimately the inadequacy of our monetary society, which relies on money to make a living. If we don't change this part of our society, the problems will not disappear anytime soon. For this reason, people need to rethink their way of life. That is, what we must live for and how we must live. Both nature and science and technology are necessary for human beings to live, but from this point on, I am summarizing what kind of society Prout Village is. In a simple conclusion, the world would be as follows.

In each region of the world, a 4km-diameter circular municipality called a "Prout Village" consisting of around 60,000 inhabitants would play a central role. All daily necessities such as food, electricity, medical care, education, housing, and home appliances would be produced by local residents using local resources, and everyone would enjoy them free of charge. The basic housing is a semi-circular dome house. The houses are made of natural materials, are highly airtight and insulated, and are heated and cooled throughout the day. Everyone will be able to rent the house free of charge from the local government.

Home appliances and other daily necessities will be made with 3D printers or by hand. Household goods will be produced from locally available raw materials and will be free of charge. The number of products produced will be limited to the number of people living in the area, and the products will be designed to be reusable, so the collection of raw materials will be minimized, thus eliminating the depletion of resources and the destruction of nature.

All wastewater from the home will be allowed to percolate into the ground from next to the residence. Instead of detergents, soaps, and shampoos containing chemicals, essential oils, hot water above 70 degrees Celsius, and ethanol derived from plants such as sugar cane will be used. In this way, the ocean and rivers will no longer be polluted and will return to their original clear state.

Electricity will be generated by the photovoltaic roofs of each household's dome house for daytime power, and storage batteries and small-scale hydroelectric power will be used at night. Solar power from each household will be collected by the municipality, so the municipality itself will become a power plant.

Food will be provided to each household on the farmland, and they will be self-sufficient by using natural farming methods that do not use pesticides and let nature take its course, or by growing food hydroponically at home. This will eliminate soil pollution and prevent the residents from falling into poverty.

Medical care will be based on natural medicine, including medicinal plants, and the diet will be mainly grain-based and vegetarian, greatly reducing the number of illnesses. Hospitals will be built in the center of the municipality and will be free of charge. As a result, people with a vocation and aptitude that is not for profit will become doctors.

Local forests will also be managed by the local government, with a distinction made between trees to be kept for life and those to be cut down, and trees will be planted systematically. In this way, municipalities with a lot of nature will be maintained all over the world.

As for education, there will be no more schools like in the monetary society. In Prout Village, everyone, from children to adults, does what they like, alone or in groups. In other words, the group or circle becomes the basic unit, and children and adults choose what they like to participate in, just like choosing a cram school, or they work independently. By creating an environment where everyone is responsible for engaging in something they are curious about in the morning from an early age, and the people around them do not interfere, it encourages early independence and the discovery of one's vocation and aptitude.

There are no jobs where people work from morning till night, and residents work only when there are public works. There is no such thing as working from morning till night. The rest of the time is spent doing what they like. There will be no schools, no companies, no destruction of nature, no pollution, no garbage, no money, no taxes, and no poverty. There would be no pension system, and everyone would be able to live unencumbered for the rest of their lives as they would make their own food and shelter.

Even if a natural disaster destroys a municipality, there would be no need for funds as reconstruction would be done with local resources, and there would be no need to think about how the economy would work after reconstruction. All that is needed is manpower, local resources, and a 3D printer, and the reconstruction can be done quickly because people have free time.

A country made up of these municipalities becomes a state, with as many states as there are ethnic groups, where culture and diversity are respected, and people can travel freely to and from each state without passports. The main means of transportation is fully automated vehicles running at 20 kilometers per hour on the ground within the municipality, while medium to long distance travel between municipalities is done in high-speed underground tunnels for automated vehicles, all powered by electricity. These will reduce the number of human accidents to zero and eliminate air pollution. Since there are no jobs that require speed in Prout Village and everyone lives a relaxed life, safe driving, not speed, is the first priority on the ground. Also, the radius from the edge of the municipality to the center is only 2km, so even if you drive at 20km/h, it will take you 15 minutes to get there. The goal is to reduce the number of traffic accidents and deaths to zero.

The underground tunnels will be connected first within states (countries) and then between states to connect the world. This will mean that there will be only domed houses and dirt roads above ground, no asphalt roads. At the same time, the underground tunnels will incorporate power transmission lines to connect solar power around the world. Surplus power from the daytime regions would then be used in the nighttime regions.

The connected world would be governed by a single organization, the World Federation, with representatives from each state, and borders would disappear, poverty would disappear, and there would be no reason for wars over money or resources. The free movement of people from one part of the world to the other will lead to increased interaction and miscegenation, so that thousands of years from now, the Earth will be a planet of mixed races.

This is the way of a sustainable society in which human abilities are maximized, and it is a society without money. In a capitalist society, people have to work long hours a day until retirement to earn money, but if we shift to a society where local communities take center stage and produce only for the local population, the minimum amount of public works and resource gathering will be enough.

Some people argue that free provision of daily necessities will lead to lazy people, but no lazy people will be born in Prout Village. Lazy people are born when they are forced to do something they don't like, and this is because we live in a monetary society where people have no choice but to work in order to earn a living. Children will be lazy if they are forced to study something they don't like, but after school, they will stay active doing something they like. This is the same for adults.

If we build Prout Village, environmental destruction and social problems on land, at sea, and in the air, which are seen all over the world, will disappear. However, an important problem for humans remains. Human life is full of suffering such as anger, regret, anxiety, jealousy, inferiority, etc. These are problems of the human ego. This ego creates thoughts in the brain, and the thoughts create suffering. If we can quiet these thoughts, we become stillness and the suffering disappears. All you have to do is to focus your consciousness on one point. By continuing to do this, stillness becomes a habit, and the mind becomes calm, creating a life without suffering. In other words, Prout Village addresses both the inner and outer aspects of the human being.

Since there is no need to spend money at Prout Village, as the residents become accustomed to living here, they will naturally change their behavior to one of giving.