Going off the rails
refers to people who have some quest that they wish to pursue, or are
compelled to pursue, instead of
doing a normal job, even though the state doesn't think that it is
worth pursuing, or doesn't believe that they are capable of
achieving it, which could also be referring to the state's
perception that they are not able to compete with others who have
been granted jobs or academic scholarships associated with the
pursuit of such quests. Sometimes
these quests are very ego orientated, such as wanting to be
a tennis champion, a great artist, or a rock star. Other times, they are
associated with doing the type of work one desires such
as architecture, teaching, neuroscience, or art. Sometimes they are
associated with developing a new type of business or inventing
something. But other times, they are associated with more altruistic
ideals such as finding truth, improving the society, finding a cure,
helping needy people, or changing the society or government policy in
some way.
There are many such people within our society at present, and at
present they usually have to pursue these goals by....
- financing it themselves. This could also
be referring to financing one's education in one's
area of interest. Financing one's quest could entail a range of possibilities
such as working part-time, working full-time and doing this
other work
in one's spare time, living off one's savings or inheritance, or partaking in
some illegal, but time-efficient activity that provides an
income.
- gaining sponsorship (which is, in most
cases, unlikely).
- being on the dole while pretending to
find work (which is technically illegal within our contemporary
society).
The fact that these are the only ways to
achieve the pursuit of one's goal serves to discourage many people
from actually taking on a challenges such as these, particularly when
there are bills to pay or families to support. This is why the
majority of such people are currently those people who often have little to
lose by taking such a chance with their lives.
Although most will fail in their quest, the
AEM acknowledges their right to try, and we also recognise that a
percentage of these people have proven to be extremely
valuable assets to our society when they do achieve their goals
(e.g. improving their society, generating revenue for the country,
discovering new facts). However, because the Egalitarian state has complete control
over all money within the society, and because it will eventually be
extremely difficult to save enough to live on for years at a time, there is no way that such people can
exist unless we make it possible for them to exist, and so we do.
And we make it possible for anybody to go off the rails, without
having to be concerned about their economic responsibilities to
their families, so we expect that there will be an increase in this
sort of thing. In fact, the state will often supply one with the
resources, information, and advice one needs to achieve one's
quest (within reason). With bigger, more expensive projects, one may
need to find others who are interested in the same goal so that
one's group can pool their allowances together to acquire more
expensive resources.
We will probably offer a number of packages, depending upon how
much regular work one is prepared to do, while one sets about
fulfilling one's quest. Generally however, one goes on a student
wage (this does not affect the resources available to one's family),
but there are conditions.
As long as one is doing what one said one
is trying to do, the
state will continue to support one in one's quest. And so that we
know that one is doing what one said one would do, we may require
one to do this project at a place of work appropriate for one's
project, just as one would normally go to a regular job.
These types of quest are extremely
diverse, and we need to cater to this diversity. Some quests for
example, will be logical to have time limitations placed on them.
With those people who achieve the social benefit they were seeking,
the state will usually back-pay these people as if they had always
been on a full wage. Others may only receive a partial back-pay due
to the excessive time taken to achieve the goal. Perhaps even more
important than being back-paid (for many people), is that we also
reward people who succeed in the challenges they take on by allowing
them to have more control over the course of their career, and this
is particularly so when they have succeeded in these quests, when
the state didn't believe they would.
