In his 1895 novella, The Time Machine, H. G. Wells takes us to a world far into the future. Here the Time Traveler finds the Eloi, a society of elegant, happy, and carefree adults living on a fruit-based diet in a peaceful society. The entire planet has become a garden.
By contrast, living below the ground in dark, dank caves are the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who never see the sun. After visiting the realm of the Morlocks, he discovers the machinery and industry run by the Morlocks that makes possible the above-ground paradise of the Eloi.
The Time Traveler speculates that the human race has evolved into two species. The Elite of the current time have become the Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the underground Morlocks. The Eloi live off the labor of the Morlocks.
Being a strident and insistent liberal/progressive/“democratic socialist,” Wells’ political views would fit perfectly in our world of 2021. In The Fate of Homo Sapiens (1939), Wells criticized almost all world religions and philosophies. Wells’ opposition to organized religion reached its height in 1943 with the publication of Crux Ansata, subtitled “An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church.”
But even thousands of years in the future, somebody eventually must pay the bill. Wells’ ideal socialist credentials run up against harsh realities. The Time Traveler begins by believing that the Eloi/Morlock relationship is one of masters and servants. However, while exploring the Morlock tunnels, he learns that the Morlocks, without any other source of food, feeds on the Eloi.
The Eloi are the cattle. The Morlocks are the ranchers. “Eat the Rich”? The economic relationship between the Eloi and the Morlocks is based on mutual supportive benefit and balance. If there are too many Eloi, the Morlock food supply would go up but then they would have to work harder to feed all the Eloi. If the population of the Morlock declines, there may not be enough food for the Eloi.
While Karl Marx said that one class—the workers—would always be exploited under the free markets, it seems the Eloi and the Morlocks overcame that problem.
However, if the Morlocks wanted more Eloi to feast on, they could increase their “production” to get the Eloi to breed faster. Likewise, the Eloi could sacrifice more of their own in the short term to give an incentive for more Morlock production to better the Eloi lifestyle.
Back in the 21st century though, the government has intervened to make everyone’s life better without either “class” making a sacrifice. The Eloi get a booming stock market and big corporation bailouts. The Morlocks get lots of freebies like direct “stimulus payments,” debt-forgiveness (think student loans), and higher long-term unemployment benefits.
But it is all paid for by government borrowing.
Other “freebie-like” solutions such as higher minimum wages simply price more workers out of the market and lead to more direct payments. There may be some tax hikes on the Eloi down the road, but that will not come anywhere close to closing the spending gap and pay for the borrowing.
The Time Traveler makes another jump into the far future. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth: Menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing enormous butterflies. The Eloi and the Morlocks have disappeared.
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1 comment
Have you even read the book?