Why Thomas More’s Utopian Country Won’t Work

 In Thomas More’s Utopia, he created this country that was based on everything being the same and nothing being unique. In this country, this means that there is no money and no private property. Everyone is given a job working for the commonwealth of the people. This sounds like this would be a great idea and would not be able to be faltered but most utopian countries collapse. I don’t think that this utopian country that Thomas More creates in this book will be able to work for very long and will collapse after the first hardship. There are many things that are in this book that make this not be able to be a perfect country and to be able to stand alone and not collapse.

            In Thomas More’s Utopia, the citizens of the country all have a job that benefit the commonwealth of the other citizens. All of the citizens follow the same jobs as those before them and for the same amount of time unless they enjoy agriculture. Thomas More says, “At regular intervals all over the countryside there are houses supplied with agriculture equipment, and town dwellers take it in turns to go and live in them… Two years is the normal period of work on the land, so that no one’s forced to rough it for too long, but those who enjoy country life ¾ and many people do ¾ can get special permission to stay there longer. Landworkers are responsible for cultivating the soil, raising livestock, felling timber, and transporting it to the towns” (51). This passage talks about the responsibilities and the jobs of the citizens. This way of work will not be very productive because there is no incentive to work. Since there is no money and no private property and that they will be given everything there is no reason to work well. In every country, you will always find people that will be lazy and will not want to work for anything. This is why giving them everything and not having any incentive will not work. They will find that people who are working hard will be expecting the same amount as the people that are working hard and this will create problems.

            In this country, there is not much different from each town. Thomas More describes them as, “There are fifty-four splendid big towns on the island, all with the same language, laws, customs, and institutions. They’re all built on the same plan, and, so far as the sites will allow all look exactly alike” (50). Thomas More creates this big country and creates all of the towns exactly the same. He creates all of these towns all of the same so that no one has more than anyone else and that everyone can be on the same level. They also all have the same houses in all of the towns. They also all have the same house plans and they all also have the same house colors. In book two, he says, “Each house has a front door leading into the street, and a back into the garden. In both cases they’re double swing-doors, which open at a touch, and close automatically behind you. So anyone can go in and out ¾ for there’s no such thing as private property (53).  In this country, everything is shared and no one ahs anything of their own. This will not work because people enjoy their personal space and also like to have something they can call their own. This wouldn’t work now because even though people value equality, they still like to be unique. Since there is nothing different between any of the houses, the citizens will start to want to change what their houses look like and will want to have something different than everyone else. That is why everything being the same will not work.

            Even though Thomas More thinks that he has created a perfect country, there are many flaws that can be found in the plans of the country. Like many utopian experimental countries this country is another country that will inevitably fall. In this book, Thomas More brings up many very well thought out plans that in theory would work but the lifestyles of people mess up these plans because people don’t like to live by the plans of other people and also don’t like to be told how to do things and what to do. A couple of things that will not work because of the people is the jobs. Another flaw in Thomas More’s plans is that everything in this country is the same and that there are no unique characteristics about the communities. This is why Thomas More’s Utopia would not work out.