re op: 'his ownership of the river' ? I would think people wise enough to set up such a society would make sure not to allow the private ownership of vital water ways. How does Ben become any different than the state at that point?

On 'all agreed to a set of immutable rules, they could all live happily.'
Wouldnt that kind of absolutism lead to coercion?

thoughts: I dont see how Voluntaria would deal with criminality and security.

Problems that will exist so long as we labor under a system that pits people against one another, creates mass concentrations of wealth. Why cant we seem to even imagine moving beyond the old paradigm of work wages and competition? and use technology and our strong social dynamics in the wisest ways possible, by fucking taking care of the basic needs of and education humanity? (answer bc the global power elite depend on poverty, war and drugs)
It seems to me that this can only happen if we free ourselves from the underlying disease of competition and the accumulation of personal wealth. What are essentially vestiges of nature-born scarcity, that we have created an economic system based on it, so that even while we produce surpluses scarcity in the form of planned obsolescence, is manufactured. While we destroy the planet and a Fed note is worth more than a person's life. At what point and how, do we leave it behind?

We should be competing against physics, music and math, not one another except in productive ways. We can educate, house and feed everyone on earth with the goal of ultimately harvesting the global potential of human mental and creative ingenuity. Imagine anyone could study any field they loved. Academia would not be poisoned by money. Just look around the whole of global society. It corrupts almost everything and breeds far more misery than anything else.
Profit has driven the technological marvels we see today. At the same time,nearly 20k babies below the age of 5 die every day bc the water they have to drink is not as clean as what I use to flush my toilet. The world is so fucked up im sure sure of this is a blessing or a curse.

A paycheck would not be necessary bc we would want for nothing. Somehow striving towards a world like this strikes me as more important given the double-edge nature of technology, the mind-blowingly destructive state of things as they are (drugs and war are the two biggest money-makers for the establishment) and the gulf between the haves and the have-nots.

Imagine a world with no notions of financial profit because money is no longer necessary. Because this is unprecedented it strikes us as hopelessly naive and idealistic and yet it's not outside the realm of possibility and given the benefits, people would take to it bc it would be a vast improvement over what we have now. And of course, automation would be the main catalyst. It could be implemented gradually by taking money back to what it should be: a means of exchange. It simply requires the overthrow of the central bankers/military industrial complex.. I'd like to think the Romanian model on a global scale could work. Of course no immediate change is possible but with gradual change with that end goal in mind, we could far better live up to our potential as a species. Looking at how fucked up the world is I just dont think it will ever happen so we can stop imagining now.
-pardon this long rant, if anyone even reads it, pardon any repetition, im tired/