Tapioca Republic

Husband, wife and kids; everyone sleeping together in the same room. Sometimes, all as one body, hugging each other on the same mattress. Nothing uncommon when a family is united and love is present. The backyard was so carefully made that it could be in one of those garden magazines. They had almost a self-sufficient economy except for some clothes, shoes and itens of personal care. Alfred and his wife didn't depend on, for example, any means of transportation. When there are no many things to be attached on, you don't need much to survive. And that was another reason, their lives were so simple and humble; no existence conflicts or such dilemmas. It seems complicated, but the idea of "superfluous", was out of their dictionaries. He used to work every Monday and Tuesday at the local grocery store. And she was at the street fair on Wednesdays and Thurdays. For both of them, the rest of the week, was very happy and would consist pretty much on helping the kids on their homeworks, take care of the backyard, feed the chicken and the cow, do some repairs, some handcrafts, etc. However, one day, something strange happened. Young Carol got home after school and asked Dad if he had heard about a philosopher called Plato who had written about "The republic". A little bit concerned because his daughter could be learning unappropriate subjects for her age, he wondered what was that all about. The 10 years old girl said that the philosopher predicted that in the future there would be workers for every single task, from making a pair of shoes to making politics, and that would bring more productivity to society. And once this is done and everyone finds their jobs and dedicates a part of their time to that, the rest of their time can be exchanged for other goods and then, they can survive. Alfred couldn't believe what he was hearing from his baby! The girl was probably going too far on her readings, and what if her teacher gives her more? The following night, he had nightmares with knights in armors on their big horses all over the place. They brought violence, corruption, envy, and sifilis to the society! And even worse because they installed big factories with large scale production, low wages to workers, union, strikes, flags... Alfred was trembling, but he woke up in the middle of the night and went straight to a 24 hours-open Mac Donalds to buy his daughter's favorite sandwich: a Big Mac.