A Colony on Mars (34 page)

Over the next hundred years that simple concept grew into a complex three planet economy that actually worked. Within that flexible framework it became possible to lend and borrow money, to receive grants to obtain luxuries and special services, to open businesses to form partnerships to form corporations to do just about anything anybody ever wanted money to do for them. The system was not based on anything but the faith of the people. Actually no economy has ever been.

CHAPTER – The Private Sector

Anyone could quit Government service and go into business for themselves or find a job on the private sector. Corporations were springing up right and left. Several Martian corporations jumped in to doing business on Earth. Among those was Super Stores that opened a chain of retail outlets Big Boy Burger that opened a chain of burger outlets and Hour Glass, Inc. that staked out land in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino areas of the former California and started growing grapes. They reopened the long deserted winery's and started producing wine that they marketed all over the United States, Mars and Arton. The Artonian natives wanted nothing to do with the stuff but he humans on Arton seemed to like it. Hour Glass, Inc. also reactivated a number of breweries in the Western United States. They went in to the manufacture of twelve ounce beer containers and glass bottles for wine. The beer products were sold throughout the United States as well as being exported to Mars and Arton. Even with only six million potential customers, Hour Glass soon became the largest corporation in the three planet system. Big 7 convenience stores from Mars began to open outlets al over the United States and bought products from other manufactures which they sold on Earth and exported to Mars and Arton. They had over two thousand outlets on the three planets. Martian Wood Products, Inc. began harvesting trees in the Northwest, cutting them into lumber and making plywood that they also marketed on all three planets. In conjunction with their lumber yards they opened hardware stores. Since there were not many companies manufacturing hardware items Mars Wood Products, Inc. started up long abandoned factories and started manufacturing their own hardware and paint products. Soon they were also manufacturing tools. They also had outlets on all three planets. A few fledgling Earth companies began doing business on Mars and on Arton and a few Arton companies began doing business on Earth and Mars. The Government accounting office expanded the credit's system to make it available on Mars and Arton. It took almost one hundred years before the three planets were consolidated under the one government. The capital City of the three planet system was official y located in San Diego, The State Capital of Earth was in Sacramento. The state capital of Mars was in New Phoenix. The State Capital of Arton was located in Island City, Arton. The Arton ships and the Dedov ships were beginning to show their age and would soon need to be replaced. The plant where the Arton ships were originally built had been restored to operation. The plans used to construct the original ships were stil available. Care was taken with the original now brittle documents and manuals which were all carefully reproduced. Parts were being fabricated, and manufactured. Additional hardware was being ordered. The nuclear drive engines were very difficult but the job had to be done. After much trial and error and testing at the main plant in Bakersfield the shuttles began hauling the pieces into space. Men working in space suits out of the Earth orbiter began to assemble the parts in space.

It took almost twenty years before the A5 had been fully tested and found seaworthy. It took an additional twenty years before the A6, A7 and A8 were on line and the earlier Arton fleet was retired. The A9, A10, A11 and A12 were built to a smaller scale from the original plans used for Mars Runner but carried the more powerful engines of the Arton fleet. These ships replaced the old Dedov fleet that had been making the Mars to Earth run for the last fifty years. Man had equaled his greatest achievement with far fewer resources. It had been feared that the project would bankrupt the economy but in the forty years that it took to build the eight new ships the three planets had all prospered. The ships had been built with a combination of Government and private sector effort. The next major task was to replace all the shuttles and to build and equip domestic aircraft for Arton and Earth. By the time that task was completed they would be well into the twenty fourth century.

When mankind returned to Earth he found an almost limitless supply of electric Automobiles that required only new batteries but in the intervening time most of the cars and trucks on the road had just worn out. The population of the three planets had grown in leaps and bounds everyone wanted a new car. Some of the factories had been destroyed during the war but cars were not built by just one company even before the war. Most parts that went in to cars had been built in Asia, Latin America and Europe. Auto America, Inc was formed. Crews were dispatched around the world to find the machines that had built parts for automobiles. The machines necessary to build a small station wagon were located, dismantled and moved to California. A new factory was built in what had been Orange County. Within three years, while the space ships were stil on the drawing board the first new cars in almost 100 years began to roll off the assembly line. Dealerships were set up in all the major cities of Earth and even one dealership in Island City, Arton to market and service the cars. To simplify production and turn out as many as possible as quickly as possible, no changes were made in the hundred year old plans, there were no options offered and they were all painted off white. Within a year the plant was producing almost one thousand cars a day and they were all paid for in full before they were even built. In subsequent years Auto America offered more models, more color choices and more options. Three years after Auto America rol ed their first car off the assembly line Detroit Auto Company began making and selling pick up trucks. A new company in Arizona began building and marketing big rigs, the eighteen wheelers which there was also a critical need for. All of these vehicles required tires, in fact the tires on the vehicles that the first Earth colonists found had just disintegrated after a little use. The Government had started manufacturing tires at a plant in the former Tijuana within two years of the landing of the first colonists. The Government sold the plant to one of the first corporations formed. Since that time the plant had tripled in size and a second plant had been opened in Eugene in the former state of Oregon.

All in all, not only Earth but also on Mars and Arton there was a critical labor shortage. Many people were holding down two jobs some were working twelve hour days. Colleges and Trade schools were graduating people in half the time that it took to train people before the catastrophe. Everything seemed to be running twenty four -seven. They only took time off to get married, have babies and bury the dead.

CHAPTER – The wealth of the Former Residents

When the people of Earth Died off most of them left behind the trappings of the things that represented wealth in their society. It is interesting to note that many people who knew that their fate had been sealed and they had only a short time to live spent a good deal of that time in protecting their valuables. They put valuables in safes, safety deposit boxes and on occasion just took them out and buried them. The new people exploring the old cities almost never found rare coins or jewels, just lying around. This presented a real problem for the people of the new society.

Most people realized that such items had no value but they stil could now resist picking up a shiny piece of jewelry or a coin for that matter. Many people made a hobby of scavenger hunting or breaking into old safes and strong boxes and removing the contents. As time went by and the new population fanned out around the globe it became more and more difficult to find such items. They generally used welding equipment to get into safes and extract the contents. The items themselves gradually regained some value and people began using them for barter.

One of the mathematicians calculated that if there had been twelve Bil ion people and they had each had an average of one hundred items of treasure there would be twelve hundred billion formerly valuable items left on the planet. An average of two thousand six hundred items for every person now on the Earth. That did not count the coins that were in common circulation. Since they were being disproportionately allocated to the people that sought them out many people soon accumulated tens of thousands of these trappings. This is the idea that finally emerged. People were allowed to keep any of them that they wanted to keep. But a committee was empowered to assign a credit value to each item or type of item and almost ten thousand workers were trained as appraisers. Anyone who turned in such items to a central collection point would be awarded the appraised value of the item in additional credits to their accounts. These valuables would then be placed in the vaults of Fort Knox with all the gold that was found there.

Under this system a one ounce gold coin was accepted for five hundred credits. Diamonds would bring about one thousand credits per carrot. Some people started making an effort to locate these items and turn them in others made an effort to find them and keep them for a rainy day while others just ignored the whole proposition. Most elected to just turn in the things they found but didn't go out of their way looking for them. One faction looked at as robbing the dead and wouldn't even pick an item up if they came across it. At Fort Knox finished jewelery was kept in one location, rare coins in another, finished diamonds in another and gold coins in another. As fewer and fewer items flowed in prices paid rose and the barter value of these items within the economy rose proportionately. Eventually the Government opened Jewelery stores and offered these items for sale to the public. Engagement and wedding bands proved to be very popular.

In this way a planetary reserve was built up and whether the Government realized it or not the credit's became backed by the Planetary reserve at Fort Knox. This made a lot of people feel more secure knowing that their accumulated credits were backed by something.

For the sake of convenience ordinary minted coins were eventually put back into circulation and were sold by the Treasury at the rate of one credit for one dollar in change. Foreign coins not minted by the United States were never put back into circulation but were sold by the jewelery stores, for a nominal price, as souvenirs. Most of the paper money was discriminating but what when sound paper money was found choice specimens were preserved to eventually be displayed in museums. The coin supply lasted for almost two hundred years before the coins became so worn that they were no longer recognizable. At that point the Government started minting new coins in the same denominations but of a new design.

CHAPTER – Medical Care

The Government maintained a network of free medical care facilities. There was one at or near every school. They were al staffed by five ful time people and were always open with one or more of the people on duty. Anyone who felt sick or had sustained a minor injury could go to a local clinic and receive free medical attention on a first come first served basis. If the person on duty at the clinic could not solve the problem then the citizen was given a slip authorizing him to make an appointment at a regional clinic. If the regional clinic which was staffed by Family Practice MD's could not solve the problem then the person was referred to one of the local Medical Schools, hospitals or specialists.

If the person did not choose to go this route he was free to make an appointment with any medical practitioner or facility that he wanted but when he did this he knew that he would be charged for the service. Soon there were private health Insurance companies offering coverage for a fee to any person that wanted it. They all had different coverages available for a different fee. Most people used the free public health care system.

There was also a free preventative health care program for people over fifty where they were entitled to an annual physical examination and follow up care once a year for routine cases otherwise as often as the primary health care provider dictated.

Medication was all manufactured directly by the Government and provided to the people as a free service.

CHAPTER – Taxation in the new order

The Government implemented the fairest of all possible tax systems. They simply credited the accounts of people and firms that they owed money to. This, you would think, would have the effect of eroding away the value of credits but it never seemed to have much effect on the value of credits. If a person had more credits accumulated in his account than he had immediate need of he could transfer the surplus to a bank that would pay him interest on those surplus credits. The bank, in turn would loan those credits out to worthwhile borrowers at a higher rate of interest than they were paying the depositor. The individual that was seeking a greater return on surplus funds than the bank was offering could transfer the surplus credits to a corporation that was soliciting additional funds for expansion. In return the corporation agreed to pay the investor a prorated share of the profits of the corporation if any or a prorated ownership in the corporation but not necessarily in corporate management. Large Government issued contracts for goods and services, in excess of one mil ion credits had to be approved by a Government watchdog committee. If the committee was not one hundred percent in favor of the proposed expenditure then the Government had the opportunity to modify the request. If an impasse developed between the Government and the committee both sides would be given the opportunity to present their side of the issue on public Television before the mater was put before the voters.

Though there was no executive or legislative branches of Government there was an active civil service headed by a civil service commission. The Government then pretty much amounted to the civil service commission who were chosen in the same way that the Supreme Court was chosen. The Civil Service Commission ran the General Accounting Office, the Department of Public Safety, The Department of Public Records and a number of other public agencies.