Why do utopian societies fail?

Would you like to live in a better world? Mankind has spent millennia looking for a perfect society—a utopia—where all can live in peace and happiness. Why has it always gone wrong? Will we ever have utopia on this earth? read more

The term "Utopia" to describe a perfect world was first coined by Sir Thomas More, in 1518. More wrote a novel depicting a fantastic new society, free from problems. More set this seemingly perfect society on an island, and gave it the name "Utopia." Since then, "Utopia" has become a kind of shorthand for a perfect place. read more

I’d say the members were actually very charitable and very righteous. But they weren’t good managers. As you mentioned before, these type of orders work better when small. These good hearted people let the order get too big because they were so charitable, and the economics didn’t work. read more

Interestingly, attrition rates for intentional communities are not all that different from many other types of human endeavour. The failure rate for start-ups is around 90 per cent, and the longevity of most companies is dismal: of the Fortune 500 companies listed in 1955, more than 88 per cent are gone; meanwhile, S&P companies have an average lifespan of just 15 years. read more