girl who never engages any of Frazier’s ideas while visiting. Frazier is smug and egocentric in his contentions, the chief one being that humans are mechanistic beings whose workings can be completely understood and programmed by other humans. However, considering the concept Walden Two is based on is behavioral engineering, there is a great deal of freedom in society. This is because the incentives offered are rewards, rewards agreed upon by the collective community. As Frazier states, “an unequal distribution of wealth destroys more incentives than it creates” (Skinner, 1962, p. 276).
Skinner’s utopia offers a large degree of freedom. There is no money and goods produced by the society are consumed as needed. The amount of time spent working must total 4 labor credits a day, however, the time employed is based on the desirability of the work. If work is really unpleasant, one can earn their 4 labor credits in less time than someone who works at a really pleasant occupation. People also choose their own work, so if lots of people want a particular types of job, it has a lower labor credit value. Therefore, the economy of Walden Two has elements of capitalism and collectivism. This is part of the “good life” as espoused by Skinner’s alter-ego, Frazier, “'Secondly, can anyone doubt that an absolute minimum of unpleasant labor is part of the Good Life?’ Frazier turned again to Castle, but he was greeted with a sullen silence. ‘That’s the millionaire’s idea anyway,’ I said. ‘I mean the minimum which is possible without imposing on anyone. We must always think of the whole group…’” (Skinner, 1962, p. 179).
Education is also based on freedom and self-motivation. Structure classrooms with the ominous threat of bad grades do not exist. Student curiosity is what dictates learning motivation. Children are motivated to learn and progress based on gradually increasing the level of difficult...