I think that some people on here have misunderstood Utopia. Hythloday's community wasn't meant to be an outline for an actual Utopian society--it was merely meant to serve as a comparison piece for More's own England, a comparison piece which he could subtly use to make suggestions about changes in government without directly stating his thoughts to the monarchy (which he worked for). Hythloday's Utopia was hardly meant to be an actual Utopia--More even highlights some of the problems with it in his own words while "discussing" the community with his character. Utopia was written as a means of furthering a political agenda, not as some piece of escapist fiction; it was meant to curb the actions of a pre-existent government and better it, not produce some sort of idealistic society. Anybody who knows anything about the word Utopia should recognize the irony of More's naming of the book (and subsequently Hythloday's city)--it literally translates to "no place". When reading this book, people need to recognize that it was written during a time when society was harsh to all but the aristocracy, and that its point wasn't to somehow portray the ideal "city on the hill" but to instead better the community from which it came. More couldn't outright say "these policies are unjust and unfair" to Henry--he would've been executed had he done so. Instead, he wrote this novel as an indirect means of guiding the King's actions. Utopia may not have been a perfect city, but it was certainly better than the society in which the book was written.