So i just i read the "Communism in wonderland" chapter in the book and here's some highlights

Top-down planning stifled initiative throughout the system. Stagnation was evident in the failure of the Soviet industrial estab­lishment to apply the innovations of the scientific-technological rev­olution of the 1970s and 1980s, including the use of computer technology. Though the Soviets produced many of the world's best mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists, little of their work found actual application

or more specifically:

  1. Managers were little inclined to pursue technological paths that might lead to their own obsolescence. Many of them were not com­petent in the new technologies and should have been replaced.
  1. Managers received no rewards for taking risks. They main­tained their positions regardless of whether innovative technology was developed, as was true of their superiors and central planners.
  1. Supplies needed for technological change were not readily avail­able. Since inputs were fixed by the plan and all materials and labor were fully committed, it was difficult to divert resources to innovative production. In addition, experimentation increased the risks of fail­ing to meet one's quotas.
  1. There was no incentive to produce better machines for other enterprises since that brought no rewards to one's own firm. Quite the contrary, under the pressure to get quantitative results, managers often cut corners on quality.
  1. There was a scarcity of replacement parts both for industrial production and for durable-use consumer goods. Because top plan­ners set such artificially low prices for spare parts, it was seldom cost­efficient for factories to produce them.
  1. Because producers did not pay real-value prices for raw materi­als, fuel, and other things, enterprises often used them inefficiently.
  1. Productive capacity was under-utilized. Problems of distribu­tion led to excessive unused inventory. Because of irregular ship­ments, there was a tendency to hoard more than could be put into production, further adding to shortages.
  1. Improvements in production would lead only to an increase in one's production quota. In effect, well-run factories were punished with greater work loads. Poor performing ones were rewarded with lower quotas and state subsidies.

Particularly 1,4 and 8. I'm interested in available solutions cause tbh nothing comes to my mind and the book wasn't about that.

  • Ewball_Oust [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think what we have here is a failure to communicate

    It seems to me you are a purist when it comes to communism

    I am talking about actually existing socialism, and a socialism that could possibly exist in this century

    We won't have a money-less society unless the whole world goes communist, and we won't have a money-less society unless we have a stateless society - and that's not gonna happen overnight

    Therefore we must have a transitionary stage - this could be short in an historical sense, but still could last a lifetime

    In the scenario I propose (and I don't think I'm original) there would be Dictatorship of the Proletariat, there would be no patents, and no individuals controlling large companies, no private ownership of land - even this would be completely unrecognizable compared to today's economy

    So my main point is that we cannot possibly abandon money and markets during the first decades (or maybe centuries?) of a newly formed socialist country. And in that case in a few sectors, something that's kinda like market socialism is preferable to central planning, because it could eliminate the problems in OPs post

    Imagine that India or South Africa goes communist next week. They invite you as an economic adviser, then you say to them that they "need to abandon money for labor tokens ASAP ".

    But what does ASAP means in this case? Days? Months? Years? Decades? Until then what?

    Surely you wouldn't say Fidel, Mao and Uncle Ho should have read more Paul Cockshott on account they haven't abandoned money altogether?

    But maybe I'm missing something, I probably should reread some stuff, so I will go do that. We must stamp out revisionism even in ourselves haha

    And Paul Cockshott looks interesting (Cybersyn is cool)

    I'm out of coffee

    :deng-cowboy: