January 11th, 2026
Different Utopia Thought Experiment
Thought Experiment: warning these are experimental ideas that might or might not be useful. I am thinking through them myself should not be seen as ideal or refined.
Imagine a society where everyone works for 2 weeks, and then lives out on the street or in parks for 2 weeks. Then they do that all year round.
In this Utopia you can’t keep property and land except for the 2 weeks you are working. Thoughts on Matthew 19:21 and how it might change society.
You go from luxury, safety, and normal as family to having to rely upon others and the safety net of society to do right by both yourself and your family.
People are more generous because they know they are on a two week alternating schedule as well. Maybe capped bank accounts – prevents people from thinking they can ideal the future, a future where they don’t have to rely upon others, can factor out the importance of others by default.
Generosity moves from something that is chosen at whim to a survival mechanism. This is not all pretty, not all altruism added.
Why people might not want to invest in a society like this? Safety, comfort, risk, convenience. A society like this might be less status quo – people say that want things changed, want things to be different, but is that really the truth, is that really what will be invested in, is it really wise to tell others that it will work or might work?
If a Church tells to amplify Matthew 19:21 for someone’s daughter without testing the safety nets themselves, have they really done her a favor? Sell everything you own and follow Christ – reminder that while Christians might look similar to Christ they aren’t Christ – details matter in who and hasn’t fallen short of the glory of God.
There are songs like Price Tag, Thrift Shop, and Cheap Thrills. Is that really the society we amplify? That money matters less than people’s souls, doing right by each other? Or is truth we don’t do right by people, are unlikely to do right by people, might be unwise us to see us as will do right by people?
More thoughts on the experiment. I am not sure how you would regain property at the end of two weeks. Two weeks would be exhausting. Yet I would say if someone wanted to grab a water bottle and sit next to a Penthouse for two weeks, maybe they should enjoy it for two weeks.
Would society know each other more or less in this society? Would society have more business interactions or less business interactions? There would likely be gains for camping and public sanitation – people might have health problems addressed that otherwise would not be. Have some doctors and nurses on the street – might be some people that know how to solve problems closer to the problems at lower cost (ambulances are expensive). Reduced healthcare costs not something worth refining?
Might be single people more protected, might be families that worked together more less overworked, might make people less afraid of the community more willing to trust God with their future. Yet all the satellites in the World seeing this society, this society that is less efficient yet possibly happier won’t want to be enslaved and taken over by other countries?