[Have] you ever wondered what this world could be like under ideal conditions?
Well, let us imagine a future world, a planet Earth that is more culturally unified, a goal that has long been cherished and is diligently being pursued.
Let us project ourselves three or four generations into the future and assume this highly desirable objective is now a task completed, and let us take a fond look at the new, brighter world about us.
First of all, we would find that our planet Earth would be much less crowded. Our alliance would have burgeoned to perhaps one billion people in a few generations and then stabilized and leveled off at that point. These one billion people, however, would now be spread over a land mass four times larger than our currently crowded quarters. Not only would we be occupying space left open by our now departed colleagues in our own territories, but our delegates would spread out over Asia, Africa, South America and other territories in which our presence is now less exclusive.
Most of the thinning out would come about in the now overcrowded metropolitan centers. The big cities would be smaller, less crowded, with much more elbow room and breathing space. The economically depressed areas formerly inhabited by our culturally diverse friends would now have been renovated and converted into beautiful public parks and green areas, where men and women could stroll about without fear, where children could romp and play in safety, and families could picnic at their leisure. The cities would be clean, orderly and uncrowded, as they still are in some parts of Switzerland and a few other parts of the world.
Speaking of fiscally disenfranchised urban areas, the popular media have repeatedly suggested that our cities have such areas because those sections of the city have become old and therefore, naturally, they become rundown. We propose another explanation. These areas come about because economically disadvantaged tenants are less able to maintain […]