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They are all very curious. Some of them show it loudly, some just nod their heads, and some are afraid to show any interest. Miki concludes that they should continue with presenting the new world to the newcomers.
MIKI (continues) Let's go further... We can freely choose every job we want.
DANNY (interrupts) What does that mean?
MIKI We can work wherever we want.
DANNY OK. I always wanted to be a medical doctor. May I?
MIKI Are you a doctor?
DANNY No!
MIKI Theoretically you may be a doctor but practically I would not recommend it to you.
DANNY Why not?
MIKI Because here patients choose their doctors. I can easily bet you won’t be busy. Besides that, patients evaluate doctors. If you make a mistake in healing somebody the patient would give you a negative evaluation and that is not good for you. If you make a big mistake, the whole town can give you negative evaluations. I would highly recommend you study medicine first...
JACK And what if 10 people apply for the same job?
MIKI Then the applicant who offers the best productivity gets the job...
JACK How in God’s sake would you measure the productivity of medical doctors?
MIKI Well, the best way is by marks that patients give you, but also with your responsibility.
JACK How?
MIKI Every candidate can raise their responsibility. Double responsibility, for example, would double the influence of each mark received from patients. If you take a responsibility value of 10, each received evaluation will give or take 10 knots off your hat. Higher responsibility raises risk. The person who offers the highest productivity and responsibility gets the job. This is in fact a developed market of work...
DANNY (mocks him) Oh oh oh! This is the market of work!!!
MIKI Yes, the best worker always stays at every work post. That’s why we have the best possible production.
DANNY Then, one cannot have whatever job they want!
MIRJANA Yes, they can! The person who really wants some job would invest more effort to get it. Here, nothing can stop him...
Frances joins the conversation.
FRANCES Everyone can get a job here and choose what to do?
MIKI Yes, here we do not have neither privileged nor unemployed people.
FRANCES (smiles surprised) Cool...
John asks a question.
JOHN Do you have a mayor?
MIKI Yes, we do.
JOHN And everyone may become a mayor if they want?
MIKI Yes everyone may become a mayor if they want. Of course he or she has to offer the best productivity for the position.
JOHN (says absorbed in thoughts) Interesting, I'm starting to like this place.
Danny asks a question with a very arrogant voice.
DANNY Who is the owner of companies?
MIKI We are all equal right owners of companies.
DANNY So, you are commies?
MIKI We have equal rights here.
DANNY
MIKI Everything is fine here.
DANNY If I do not want to be equal, do I have a choice?
MIKI You have the choice here only if we all agree about that. Unfortunately such a chance is very weak...
DANNY That's what I thought...
MIKI (thinks a little bit and continues)
DANNY I'll look for something better...
Murmur. Most agree with Danny.
BETTE You will not go anywhere before we see what it is.
Danny is dissatisfied but silent. They are all absorbed in thoughts.
MIKI Let’s have a lunch break. We will continue after that...
They all agree, standing up from the chairs and leave the room.
INT. RESTAURANT SELF-SERVICE DAY
A very cozy self-service restaurant gives a homely atmosphere. Silent background music plays from speakers. The restaurant is full of different tasty foods nicely arranged in buffets. There is also a middle-aged chubby cook in white with a big hat who helps serve.
BETTE (asks a cook) Is this organic food?
COOK We have healthy food only.
BETTE (nods her head satisfied) Our farmers poisoned us with pesticides and hormones.
The cook, a cheery man by nature, smiles to this comment, he raises his arm and makes a face as if to guarantee his food is of good quality.
At the end of the line of food Bette finds out that there is not a cashier to pay the lunch to.
BETTE (asks them all) Where is the cashier?
They turned around and searched for a cashier but could not find one...
DANNY (shrugs his shoulders) It must be complimentary of the airline company due to the shit we are in...
BETTE Might be ...
They carry trays with food and sit at the tables.
BETTE (continues) ... but it seems we are in a much bigger problem.
DIANE (sits beside Bette) What do you mean?
FRANCES You heard what they said!
They speak loudly so that everyone in the restaurant hears what they’re saying. Jack, who sits at the neighbouring table, responds.
JACK Yeah, I think someone’s playing us. Maybe it’s Candid Camera?
Everyone looks around trying to find a camera, which is possibly making a video of them.
BRANDON I can’t see a camera.
FRANCES Me neither...
JACK Of course you cannot see it! The show wouldn’t be called “Candid Camera” if the camera isn’t hidden.
BETTE (seconds his opinion) It’s true, it sounds unrealistic that everyone can work whatever they wish!
DANNY Someone is screwing around with us!
KEVIN It seems serious to me!
AL Me too...
JOHN I don’t think it’s bad here...
John puts a bite in his mouth as if nothing strange has happened.
DIANE (a bit worried) I hope not...
INT. WELCOME CENTER (again)
Danny is first to return to the welcome center. He sits in front of the computer and types an e-mail to his business partner...
Hi George,
Write to me,
Danny
Sends the e-mail and immediately receives the response “The recipient is unknown.” He swallows a noodle, inhales and exhales unsatisfied.
At that time the others return from lunch. Mirjana continues the speech after the break.
MIRJANA (continues) We have developed direct democracy here... ...especially in economy...
DANNY (mocks her sarcastically) Oh oh oh...
MIRJANA We all participate in the distribution of common money.
DANNY (mocks her again) Oh oh oh...
Mirjana looks at Danny and smiles.
MIRJANA Now comes a real surprise for you! We have directly decided to direct all the money for the needs of joined consumption.
She presents a diagram on a big screen where individual consumption is reduced to zero. The joined consumption accumulates all of the money.
MIRJANA That means we do not receive incomes here. We all consume what ever we need and everything is financed from the common consumption budget.
DANNY Incomes do not exist, everyone takes what they need? ... You are even worse than commies! You are crazy!
MIRJANA We are not crazy. We function excellently.
DANNY So who decides what a consumer is going to consume?
MIRJANA The consumer alone.
DANNY
MIRJANA Here we have completely different values then you are used to. If somebody takes ten cars here it would be equally foolish like the one who takes ten dinners instead of one. No intelligent person does this...
DANNY
MIKI Cars are made by the orders of the people. With such behaviour you can produce a shortage of spare cars. Then the people here may get angry at you and give you negative evaluations. A lot of negative evaluations and you finish at the end of the main street right...
Danny does not look satisfied with the answer, neither do the others...
MIKI (continues) When we came here we thought the same as you. We directed all of the money for incomes. We had no taxes at all. We were full of money. Normally we had to pay each good or service. We had to pay doctors, schools, police, courts, everything... (he thinks a little bit) What was even worse, we privatized everything. On my way to work I had to stop 13 times to pay crossing over someone's private property. That Lazar wanted to privatize even air, but he didn't succeed! Police did not want to talk to you before you paid them. Firemen did not want to extinguish a fire before you pay them. Medical doctors did not want to look at you before you pay them. We have produced a worse situation than you have had, and almost finished right in Hell...
MIRJANA Not me!
MIKI (ironically) Sorry I forgot to say that you have always been perfect. That’s the reason I am very happy with you.
Mirjana pretends she didn’t hear irony in his voice.
MIRJANA Do you ask yourself if I am very happy with you?
MIKI (silently responds to Mirjana)
Mirjana passes a minor conflict and continues...
MIRJANA
MIKI (continues) That’s how we finally took the privileged power from the leaders. That’s how the taxes started to serve us!
DANNY (mocks him) Oh oh oh...
Miki does not pay attention...
MIKI That ended up so well that we all finally individually gave all our money for taxes. In that manner we abolished incomes. Now we finance all consumption from the common expenses budget. These are significant changes...
DANNY If I ever work here, I would still like to receive an income...
MIKI Why do you need it when everything is free of charge?
DANNY I do not believe in your system. (says honestly)
MIKI You could all vote to keep your salaries but your voices will be drowned in the sea of votes from all of us who do not need salaries any more. The result of all your votes could ideally affect us to receive a salary in the amount of a few dollars. This would slightly reduce the common consumption but still everything would be free of charge because we who live here want it. We do not want salaries. That's how we live. However, if you persuade most of us to keep wages then incomes would return and normally most of the goods would have to be purchased. Honestly, We do not see it as a possibility because we know our way is the best.
DANNY I do not believe in your system. (repeats honestly)
MIKI OK. We cannot give you an income because it does not exist here, but we can give you money, as much as you want, with which you cannot buy anything because everything is free of charge here.
Danny nods his head satisfied.
JACK Wait a moment! If everything is free of charge why would anybody work hard to get something when he can have it without work?
MIRJANA Here work is not a difficult trouble but pleasant satisfaction. Work is a value itself.
They are all absorbed in thoughts. Jack breaks the silence...
JACK I was told that the market determines the value of work.
MIKI That's correct too, but you still do not know how the free work market looks like.
JACK (repeats surprised) We still do not know how a work market is supposed to look like?
MIKI Correct! The market of work is supposed to make balance between the demand and supply of work. Have you had an equal demand for all work posts?
JACK Work cannot be equally demanded. Somebody always gets better jobs and somebody worse jobs...
MIKI Here we do not have better and worse jobs!
JACK (sarcastically) How convenient!
MIKI You think better jobs are those that give bigger statuses and influences in society. These are illusions... We have eliminated them... The workers at more influential work positions receive more evaluations from the people. If they fail terribly they can easily finish in Hell...
DANNY (mocks him powerlessly) Yeah...
MIKI (doesn’t pay attention to him) The moment we abolished the work privileges all jobs became equally demanded.
JACK ?
MIKI Nobody would choose bad jobs if they exist. The work is free here.
JACK (excitedly) So you think we didn’t work freely?! That I was a slave for 45 years?
MIKI
JACK (asks sarcastically) Would you be so kind and tell us poor, ignorant people what free work is?
MIKI Here we choose whether we want to work, and then we choose what we want to work. That is free work.
JACK (continues) So what if all the people choose not to work?
MIKI That is impossible! We confirm our productive powers by the work. By giving up from it we would practically negate ourselves...
JACK Everything is possible!
MIKI That would be the same as your top sportsmen give up from competitions. We have competitions for each work post here.
JACK Now that sounds cruel!
MIRJANA
Jack watches Miki suspiciously.
MIKI (continues) Let me conclude, work values more than goods here. If that would not be the case, then we would return back to individual incomes, you are used to. But this is paradise and everything is OK.
MIRJANA That would be all for now. Any questions?
FRANCES You said that you direct production and consumption on your own. It's not clear to me how?
MIRJANA Here we have fictitious money that everyone directs where he thinks is more or most important. An individual who thinks that health care should be more developed than public recreation, would direct more money for health care and less for the public recreation. The sum total of all statements of all individuals determines production.
FRANCES So how can you order a car?
MIRJANA We order cars individually... We successfully cover all individual orders by the common consumption budget. If we are not able to do so, we would return to individual incomes... ...which would not be a problem at all...
Thinks a little bit and then continues.
MIRJANA The point is we have created a democratically planned economy that implements the most rational and useful production. The system of work competition carries out the best possible production. Our economy is the best one.
DANNY OK, now you came to the subject I am an expert at. Good old capitalism has the best economy because it makes the highest profit. That’s a well known thing!
MIKI Incorrect! The best worker on every public work post makes the highest profit that capitalism cannot follow. Public companies won over private ones and that sent capitalism to history...
Danny makes a face as if something hit him but does not have the guts to continue discussion.
MIRJANA (continues) When capitalism started leaving, the profit started losing its importance... ...man has become the main value. Now profit does not exist any more at all and man is all for us...
FRANCES (concludes) Sounds good...
DANNY Sounds bad!
MIKI (smiles and continues) And now, the last surprise for today. It's enough that workers here work two hours a day in order to satisfy the needs of the whole community.
DANNY (suspiciously) We will see...
JACK (sarcastically) So what are you doing the rest of the time, if one is allowed to know?
MIKI We can work what we want and as much as we want. The rest of the time we do the same as we do while work – we enjoy life.
MIRJANA More questions?
Murmur in the room but there are no more questions.
MIRJANA We know that you are full of surprises, but don't worry, everything will be OK. We are actually one big good family, happy and satisfied...
MIKI Now you are free to go where ever you want and to do what ever you want. All inhabitants of Heaven will gladly help you whenever you need it...
FRANCES So where will we sleep?
MIRJANA Uh, thanks for reminding me...
Mirjana types something into her computer which automatically inserts pictures and descriptions of available houses and apartments into all monitors in front of them.
MIRJANA (continues)
They all move towards monitors and search...
INT. BEDROOM LATE NIGHT
Kathy and Jack have chosen a rustically arranged and very pleasant apartment.
They both lie in bed ready to sleep, watch the ceiling, and think.
KATHY Have you noticed that blue hats have been given to a soccer star and a famous singer? That looks like protection to me. There is no justice anywhere!
JACK And we went to church every Sunday. I ask myself why?
KATHY I went to church every Sunday. You did not.
JACK Are you starting again?
KATHY You have accused me in front of everyone that it was my fault we got red hats.
JACK Then whose fault is it?
KATHY
JACK You are the one who persistently cooks the “healthy” food I cannot stand. You are the one who likes to sling mud at me whenever I drink a little bit with friends. You are a grumble witch! God sees everything!
KATHY Me a grumble witch! And what are you? You are the one who sent everyone to Hell! You are a grumble old goat!
JACK Me grumble? You have not seen, in all your life, a more tolerant person than me!
KATHY (sarcastically) Yeah, that is the reason our relatives often come over and enjoy spending
JACK They do not avoid us, I avoid them. None of them are normal people!
KATHY Uh, what a tolerance!
JACK I am tolerant! It is not my fault they are abnormal.
Kathy gave up from the discussion and turns angrily to her side of the bed.
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updated:
January 15, 2011
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