It was only from a clearing left by a fallen tree that we could see

The Lost Pyramid of Marjon.

(All right, so the title doesn’t have much relevance to the story apart from the name of the fictional place. No, there’s no pyramid. There could be a pyramid, but it ended up on the cutting room floor.)

Marjon is a fecund tropical paradise. The Marjonians all have their own plots of land from which they harvest food. The Community Council meets once a month to make decisions and all decisions must be unanimous.

But the Marxists had been in town and had suggested that all the produce should be collectively owned and distributed according to need. (They left out the bits about concomitant totalitarian dictatorship.)

One of the Elders wondered what the point would be. If everyone could help themselves, why would anyone bother growing breadfruit? If anyone wants extra, he suggested, they just have to grow it.

Is the Elder right?

I don’t know. The assumption seems to be that under this system, people would simply altruistically hand over their breadfruit recognising the collective need. Yeah, I think the Elder’s right. People are either going to grow stuff for themselves or they’re going to assume that someone’s going to grow it for them but without having the faintest idea who. Unless the Council orders people to grow, harvest and contribute, I’d guess that most people would continue to grow breadfruit for themselves. Since Marjon is so fertile, I can imagine the population agreeing with the Elder. It would also seem a little a little stupid to contribute to the breadfruit loaf (it’s like an EU wine lake or butter mountain) if you’re just going to get your contribution back again.

At this point in time at least, Marjon society doesn’t need to go all collective ownership. No one seems to have too much nor anyone too little.

Tomorrow, problems in paradise. It might be time for regime change.