I’ve had this novel brewing in the back of my mind for some time now, I woke up with the idea finished in my head a few days before I started this blog on November 10, 2012. Even now I can see the whole thing in my head as if watching a movie but I don’t have the craft to put it down into words in the form of a novel. My original intent was to start developing my ideas here while at the same time having a place to display my musical art. I have been exercising my writing muscles with various flights of fancy, and there is now over a half hour of music anyone can listen to while visiting here. It is time to get started with this thing, haphazard as it might be.
The basic gist is that people start getting fed up with rich people taking too much from their efforts. I worked for a music school for a few months and this “non-profit” school was charging $30 for a half-hour lesson and paying me $10. I stumbled on a student who wanted to take lessons from me. When asked what I charge a flurry of things ran through my head and I didn’t want to be perpetually making change so I said $20. That doubles my pay and cuts the student’s price by a third; granted, I provide the space for the lesson.
What if everyone became painfully aware that they were being grossly underpaid? So many workers produce a lot of product and doubling or tripling their wage would almost not affect the price of the product at all. Obamacare for all the workers at a major pizza chain would add about five cents to the price of each pizza. That’s a big pay raise without noticeably affecting the retail price of what they make and yet the rich people at the top don’t want to do it. Bottom line, a big increase in wages does not affect the price of the product but it is money dollar-for-dollar out of the pocket of the top guy. The big boss is a billionaire, the people who produce the product are barely subsisting. That is wrong. If you take anyone out of the chain from original idea all the way to the cash register and that means the sale doesn’t somehow happen, then that person is of equal importance and should get an equal share of the profit.
That everyone could live well, including menial laborers, is not a well known fact. But what if it was? There are theorists who insist that automation has become so efficient that the vast majority of people could live middle class lives and never work. Even if it is not true that most people need never work, everything is working now as is, so if everyone not working shared in the current work load then we could have the same world we have now with everyone working many fewer hours. That is obvious and undeniable.
The novel I have in mind, They Take too Much, has to do with that title becoming a slogan that catches on and spreads like wildfire. It reaches a head and a date is set where people decide they are not going to take it anymore and not show up for work. To a degree everyone assumes most others won’t do it, but everyone does. Anarchy and rioting soon ensue as the power goes out and food supplies rapidly dwindle. The entire world goes into a state of chaos. Many people die.
Things eventually settle down. On one end of the spectrum, survivalists and naturalists gather less knowledgeable people and start hunting and farming communities in the wild. On the other end of the spectrum competent business men organize forced-work camps, and some people voluntarily enter these camps because they cannot otherwise survive. So two basic factions emerge, one more organized than the other but each powerful in their own right. The survivalists are militant guerrillas who are impossible to control and defeat because they are spread out and crafty, and the sheer organization of the work camps and their mercenaries are like impenetrable ever growing fortresses.
I will eventually push things into a realization of compromise, where all sides discover what really matters and a new world system of government and organization emerges. I hope to write a series of articles theorizing about all this and it is likely to please myself and anger many others.
It is interesting to try and theorize how to eliminate crime, make everyone comfortable and happy, and have an honest and accountable government system. I think about that a lot while finding out about real events in the world and reading about political and economic systems. I basically have it all worked out and I will lay it out here scattered about with my various flights of fancy. Writing it down will help me flesh things out.
No Stolen Cat Pictures 
I like it! but surely it would be more than just one book?
The idea does seem worthy of more than one book, perhaps a series or trilogy. The problem with that idea is that I have serious doubts whether I can write one. Also my knowledge of many things is nearly non-existant. I’m afraid I’m going to have to learn a few things along the way. I will have to dance around certain things that I know nothing about and that is likely going to hurt the substance in some ways and help move the things I do feel are important move forward. This could take me years if I do indeed get it done.
Sounds like an intriguing concept. I was reading somewhere that in the 1930s (I think it was), there was growing alarm that Corporate Presidents were earning about 24 times what an average worker made. There was speculation there might be a revolution. Today, a corporate CEO makes 240 times more than the average worker. I think we’re overdue for that revolution.
The New Deal and the rise of labor unions took the wind out of the Socialist movement in the US, which was more common than a revolutionary movement. The danger was there, though. The current thrust to neutralize the New Deal seems to me like the Robber Barons are back, with law enforcement and government on their side again, but now the Robber Barons have the advantage of a propaganda machine to keep the peasants under control.
I don’t know the historical context nearly as well as I should. Cathy should be able to help me there some as needed and most everyones comments along the way will likely be a massive help. We’ll see. My intent is to post all my ideas and the actual text here. I am not doing this to put food on the table but I do have some rather strong opinions I want to put out there.