TANSTAAFL

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

On the moon, everything requires money. Your food, your residence, your ice, your P-Suit, even the very air. Thus, was born tanstaafl. You get what you pay for in life, and its nowhere as true as on the moon.

In modern society, we have people known as "freeloaders". Those people living off government welfare, bums begging for handouts on the streets, people avoiding tax's, living in their parents basements, and so many more examples. These citizens prey off the honest working folk, and simply lazy their way through life.

And honestly? We enable them to do that. Sure, we rationalize it, but in the end we make it "ok" to be down and out.

So Heinlein comes through with a concept: What if everything was privately owned?

In the Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the moon is technically ruled by the Warden, a man who simply stays in the government complex all day and for the most part, does nothing. Even though the moon is a sort of prison, it has next to no guards. only around 30 in total. Why so few? because there is no escape! Ask yourself, what would happen if a man broke out of a cell on the moon? Nothing, because he couldn't leave. He couldn't even sneak back to earth, because its a death sentence. The moon is approximately .165 G, meaning around 1/6th of earth's gravity. Thus, an extended stay on the moon would result in muscle degradation, and physiological changes, rendering a human "stuck" on the moon. If they were to return to earth, they could not survive, because they have already adapted to the lower gravity.

So, the Warden has no need for guards. Thus, the people are left to themselves, so long as they don't interfere with the "Authority". What sprawls out of that mess, is rational anarchy. No government, no public services, no taxes. Heinlein presents a very interesting culture to go with this, but that is for another post. What comes out of this rational anarchy, is that every man is responsible for himself, and himself only. If you need to buy something, you buy it from people, not faceless companies. And if you mess up in your business, or wrong someone, then you personally are responsible, not the business. If you want insurance, you have to buy it from someone. If you want a new tunnel built, you have to buy it yourself, or build it yourself. If you want a pension? You have to buy one. A mindset appears with this sort of thinking; "The worst thing you can do for a hungry man is to feed him".  Because on the moon, tanstaafl. A person is expected to work to survive, and if you refuse to work, then you die. Black and white. The concept of charity doesn't exist on the moon! If a "loonie" does not have the common sense to try to find work to feed himself, and to provide for himself, then he is weeded out through classic Darwinian philosophy.

Its a interesting thought to say the least. In modern society, we would call it barbaric, to have capital punishment for something so simple. But consider the society of the moon. Descendants of convicts, political exiles, or recently brought up from earth. Left alone to their own devices. Modern thinking would imagine them all to be in gangs and killing each other. However, they almost seem to thrive. The reason? Everyone works for themselves, and doesn't bother anyone else, the beauty of rational anarchy. Tanstaafl.