radu62s
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Alan,
I am curious what would you like to use as basis for Cost Analysis, other than money? There is a view that in a society of scarcity, as Capitalism is, costs management is essential, hence the Cost Analysis tools are important. But in a society of abundance, as socialism is expected to be, there will be much less need for cost analysis as we know it now. Some checks to prevent abuses will be needed but not the penny pinching we see today.
My belief that money, at some point, come to limit economic activity derives from two of the functions money perform: medium of exchange and storage of value. You need money to circulate for the economic activity to happen. When some participants in the economy hoard money and do not put them back in circulation, the economy suffers. The Great Depression and the Great Recession where liquidity crises solved by pouring money into the system. At a personal level, there were many people lacking funds for life necessities. They were willing to work, to earn the needed funds, but nobody would hire them because there was no money available.
All the best,
Radu
Thank you all!
I am really overwhelmed by your replies. I wish I had more time to spend on replies and reading your materials.
Schekn – I would love to discuss with you your ideas. I am not sure if it should be continued here, in a different forum or in a different format.
Your idea about canteens, expanded by robbo203 and Alan (alanjjohnstone if I am not mistaken), I think it is a great idea with potential to become a plan of action. I would like to call it “social eatery” or even something more glamorous (to be found). Image/presentation matters a lot these days when people buy drinks for the look (to post pictures with) rather than for the taste.
Alan – I really appreciated you bringing in discussion the point system, as an alternative to money for making decisions. I would think resources allocation would have to be part of the points calculated. To use your “steak/cheeseburger” example: most people would prefer the prime steak instead of cheeseburger but a cow provides more cheeseburgers than steaks. The point system should solve such problem at least, if not better, as the pricing does. I would love to expand more on this topic, after I read the document you referenced.
Just a few words about myself, so you can understand my views better. I am Romanian, which I lived 29 years in socialism/communism, than I immigrated to the US where I lived another 28 years. I plan to retire in a couple of years in Romania. I have engineering degree from Romania and a Business/finance degree from US, though I work in I.T. as an analyst developer. I came to the understanding that money, “the blood of the economy”, restricts economic activity. I expect, in the not to distant future, society will function without them. Actually I am having fun at all the energy poured into the cryptocurrencies.
Hi robbo203,
Consumers’ motives would affect demand. Regardless of motives, the socialist economy would have to satisfy the demand, whatever the demand is. You mention “self regulating system of stock control” as a mechanism to balance supply and demand in the socialist economy. This is a system to replenish the shelves. In Capitalist economy “pricing” is the mechanism to balance supply and demand. If the supply is low the price goes up and reduces demand. Demand means “willingness and capacity to pay” not “need for product”.
Another mechanism to balance supply and demand, for example, is “quotas”. It can be a disastrous solution. I lived through quota of 2 lb of meat per months (half of it was bone). Maybe a good computer algorithm could generate quote/work required pairs that most people would be pleased with. Would you have interest to be part of developing such an algorithm?
Can be any other mechanism to balance supply and demand?
By the way, all production today is for consumption, granted – often enough is wasteful consumption.
Thank you alanjjohnstone and robbo203 for your replies. I apologize I cannot spend more time for replying to you. I think it will help if I post one reply per idea rather than one post with views on multiple ideas.
I include answers for robbo203, Subhaditya and alanijohnstone in my reply.
- “probably some sort of rationing will be introduced” or “the production priorities of a socialist society are likely to skew the allocation of resources” support my view there is no working mechanism to balance supply and demand. All expressed are hypothetical solutions. I would love to find somebody interested in working with me to write the rules for such a mechanism, and then test them in real life.
- expecting that people will take from the distribution center only what they need is highly idealistic. If everybody can take home any car wants, don’t you expect that most people will settle for Ferrari, Lotus or alike? Without a “keep in check” mechanism, many people will abuse the system. If I can get anything, why not get a new pair of socks or a new shirt every day to avoid washing them. Actually I know somebody that wears new socks every day, never washes them.
- corruption is a significant obstacle to a socialist community if some leaders need to be selected. Even limiting the time allowed to stay in office will not eliminate corruption. I envision the community to not need politicians at all. The community will function observing a set of basic rules, similar to a constitution, which are rarely changed, and would require popular vote for any change.
- alanijohnstone said: “We do possess a wide variety of administrative structures around the world that have advantages and disadvantages. It is merely a job of adapting and modifying them.” Agreed. Can we elaborate more and have a more concrete plan?
For every idea to become reality an operating plan is needed. I think the problem is not much in the support for socialism, as it is having the mechanisms for such a society to function. I am sorry to say but, beyond the wonderful idea, there is nothing to make it become reality. I joined this thread to see what are the plans toward building socialism. I want to actively start building the society you dream of. Here are some points why I say there is nothing concrete on the path to socialism:
- democracy is a very difficult environment to work within. I am an advocate of democracy, I want the society to work democratically but it does not happens naturally. It takes a lot of effort for a small organization to function democratically, but how about an ecosystem with a large number of organizations where personal ego and views on issues conflict?
- cooperatives are the best economic entities to support a socialist society. Even they exist, they never reached a level to make an impact. The total cooperative’s share of economic activity in UK’s economy is less that 1%. It should be at least 10-20% to have a real impact.
- How would you balance supply and demand of goods and services in society? How would you determine who produces what, so everybody can have enough? – whatever solutions you may propose, and I am quite interested to hear them, they would need to be tested in the real world on pilot communities.
