From driving to fishing we license everything but …
… but the one thing that has the biggest impact on society, on the planet – Life.
It may be the most unworkable idea I have ever had. Most religions will find it repugnant. But, I still can't help thinking about it with our over crowded planet. And, if you take the concept to the nth-degree, it could help with our courts and prisons. Please consider this just a crazy idea or perhaps the start of a science fiction plot.
I'm talking about a Life License that is applied for by parents and then becomes the cradle-to-grave measure of each life, like your driver's license.
Want kids? Go to your community's Board of Procreation (similar to the draft board) and present you credentials for responsible parenthood. If you are minimally qualified, the first 2 children are easily granted. Want 3 or 4, the qualifications become more difficult. In my world more than 4 would be out of the question, but I suppose you would have a regional board of appeals for a larger family where the only the only arguments allowed would be benefit to society, not religion or personal preference.
So how would you enforce this? Camera's in the bedroom? Abortion police? Birth control in the drinking water? Surgery? That's where the idea becomes unworkable.
But let's continue on. Billy is born and has a life license. He has a few mischievous years during adolescence and accumulates a few bad points on his license. Then Billy, settles down gets married and eventually wants to have a family. The Board of Procreation looks at his life license (and his wife's) as part of the criteria. The bad points are deleted and ignored because of the good history past adolescence.
Another person accumulates many bad points on his life license. Finally he is convicted of robbery. The point system dictates the punishment of 3 years in jail. Afterward, George reforms himself and accumulates good points with community service that cancel the bad points.
A third person embarks on a life of crime. Finally his life license reaches the point of suspension, or even revocation.
Using a point system of good and bad points, would clarify the person's role in society and simplify the sentencing for criminals. In extreme cases, a criminal might face a death sentence not because he killed anyone, but because or the high number of unbalanced, bad points on his license.
Since it has become one small planet, the system of Life Licensure could be global, and in dependent of governments. The qualifications for having children would be adjusted to fit local conditions. Yet there would be global objectives to slow overcrowding and reduce poverty.
Sorry if I have offended. It's just something to make us think.
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