Balancing work & play
People today live to work instead of work to live. There are a number of reasons for this but our whole society dictates, and conditions us to think, that hard work will bring us the rewards we think we need for our happiness. It is like a badge of honor and you are revered if you work long hours, work the weekend, take few vacation or sick days, and check your work email while supposedly spending time with friends and family. Our whole culture is built on the notion that the people that work hard will earn more so that they can buy more possessions that they think will make them happy, and those that just do what is asked of them will struggle to make ends meet.
In Nutopia everyone works as needed, no more, no less. No one earns money, or is striving for additional rewards such as bonuses or stock options, and no one buys anything with the money they have earned because there isn't any. Everyone shares equally in the leisure activities that typically are reserved for the rich, such as sailing, boating, skiing, travelling, and enjoying good food and drink. People work hard on the tasks that are assigned to them because it is their responsibility to society as a whole so that they and everyone else can enjoy the fruits of their collective labor. The Citizen Standing is a measure of a citizen's commitment to Nutopia and those that don't do their fair share are quickly identified by the Guardian System.
Leisure time
Some 50 years ago it was possible for a family to have one income with the man of the house working a 40-hour week with a blue-collar job, and all the needs of the family were met including vacations, college for the kids, healthcare, and preparation for retirement. Families would enjoy evenings and weekends with friends and families on leisure activities because the stay at home mom made sure that the family home was properly maintained at all times.
Fast forward to the 21st century and you find that most families have to have two (sometimes more) incomes just to make ends meet, vacations are few and far between, many go in to debt to pay for healthcare and college, and there is literally no spare money to think about saving for retirement. All this means that there is no spare time for leisure activities because evenings and weekends are used to catch up with chores and to maintain the home.
In Nutopia people are expected to work on tasks based on the needs of the community. People work significantly less because there is no culture which is driving us to be more productive and to drive economic growth. People mostly work a few hours a day and only a few days a week, and there are no chores to do at home because that work is shared by others in the community, so the rest of the time is spent enjoying a variety of leisure pursuits with friends and family.
Accessibility
It is very time-consuming to organize leisure activities and there are often many road blocks preventing us from even trying to organize enjoyable activities for ourselves, our fiends, and our families. Whether it is a skiing trip, camping trip, trip to the beach, a weekend out boating on a lake, an afternoon hiking in the woods, or a day floating down the river on kayaks, it all takes a whole bunch of planning and preparation. The trips need to be booked and payed for, suitable attire needs to be purchased such as ski jackets, hiking boots, and back packs, the car needs to be loaded, and everyone needs to pack their own things. Often there is traffic to deal with on the roads and when you get to the destination there are lines to wait in and forms to fill out before you can even start your day. All this aggravation means that many people just don't have the time or the inclination to organize leisure activities so the family often spends any free time stuck at home watching TV or playing video games.
In Nutopia all leisure activities are requested using the Guardian System. The type of activity, the date and time, and the people doing the activity are entered and the system does everything else. You can select additional items you want during the activity such as food, drink, accessories such as flash lights, rain coats, umbrellas, etc. and everything will be ready when you get there. If you are skiing for example, then all the skis, ski boots, jackets, helmets, gloves, and poles are ready for you when you arrive, and everything fits perfectly because the Guardian System knows everyone's height, weight, shoe size, hand size, head size, chest and waist measurements, which are all measured during the regular Health Checkups. There is nothing to prepare and nothing to pack because everything will be ready for you when you conveniently arrive at your destination using the Under Ground Pod Network or the Above Ground Pod Network without having to deal with traffic or lines. All this means that people will be doing leisure activities all the time because it is a pleasant experience with no aggravation to organize them.
Cost
In today's world everything costs money and leisure activities are no exception. Some activities are too expensive for most people such as skiing, sailing, hiring a motor boat, and zip-lining, but even simpler pleasures such as camping and hiking have a cost associated with them because of the equipment needed for the activity. Even a simple kayaking trip down a river on a Sunday afternoon for most people means finding a place who will rent kayaks which can be relatively expensive. When people are struggling just to make ends meet, there is typically no extra money to allow families to spend money on these types of leisure activities.
Leisure activities don't cost money in Nutopia they are freely available for everyone to use. The Guardian System controls everything so it makes sure that the leisure activities are fairly allocated to all people. For example, if you and your family have just been skiing then the Guardian System will make sure that other people are given the chance to ski before you can reserve it again. That might mean that you have to wait another week or so before you can ski again, but it is more important that everyone is getting their fair share.
