[Vertigo]

I shall dive in first (jumping the gun a little) with my submission for ch12.

I have taken the “Economic Future” subject and extended it rather further into the future.

This was my outline

1. Topic: wealth without money
2. Background: Society without work
3. ....First problem: failure of money
4. ....First answer: barter instead of money
5. ....Second problem: failure of barter
6 Clarification: what is wealth?
7 Answer: status as wealth
8 Justification: status in history
9 ....Money as an anomaly
11 Mechanics: gaining and losing status
12 Nothing is perfect: No utopia
13 ....Example

And this my paragraph 160 words (close enough to ‘about 150’):

What is wealth without money? In a future society within which all energy, food production and manufacturing are fully automated and free, there would be no need for labour. Without labour money has no meaning. Without money, barter might suffice. But barter is difficult to apply to the abstract; how would scientists barter their work? Wealth is a measure of a person’s status. Without money status is wealth. This is nothing new, throughout history status is often as important as money – consider the world of the Japanese Samurai – and in primitive societies with no money, status would be all. Money is, conceivably, only a brief anomaly in the long history of wealth. Whether concrete or abstract, the person whose contribution to society is valued will gain status, whilst the person who does nothing of value will lose status. This, however, is no utopia; theft will still exist. To take credit for someone else’s work would be to ‘steal’ their status.

Here is my outline for the piece by W Nelson Francis:

1. Topic: a paradox about grammar
2. Specification: paradox first part – grammar is dull
3. ....paradox second part – strong views held without substance
4. Reason: ignorance and confusion
5. Conclusion: lack of understanding of grammar

I would add that I felt the clause ‘and there is an unfortunate confusion about the meaning of the term “grammar” itself’ somehow did not fit with the rest of the paragraph.

[Please don't forget to post comments/discussion on the exercises here]