A huge problem with leftists is that we don't have an actual program for socialism beyond "ethical capitalism now" and "science fiction post scarcity in the vague future".
So I made this post to explain my clear idea of what socialism should look like in the immediate future. I also want to hear your own idea.
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Money is immediately abolished and replaced with labour-vouchers that are destroyed upon use. This eliminates profit, interest and rent, and removes the incentive for private ownership of capital and abolishes commodity production.
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"Wages" (in quotes as its no longer money-wage ) are set based on actual contribution to production. This means income inequality will still exist, e.g. oil-rig workers will make 10 times more than janitors, managers 5 times more than line wokers etc. This is non-negotiable, workers must get exactly what they actually contribute. This is for both moral reasons and also to ensure that the law of value is not violated.
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Incentive to innovate, improve efficiency and increase production comes from the fact that income is directly correlated with labor productivity. Better production machinery or improved managerial practices will directly result in increased income.
- The prices of goods and services are calculated based on direct and indirect labor inputs. The total prices of all goods and services in a given period is equal to the total labour-vouchers generated in that same period.
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A separate account is maintained for foreign trade with capitaist countries, using foreign currency, ideally crypto or digital renminbi. The goods traded in will be stripped of currency value and assigned a labor-value equal to the goods traded out.
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Economic planning is based on direct democracy. For consumer goods, planning is based on consumer choice(the producer has no choice here). New products and services are introduced at emporiums, and the decision to begin their production is based on consumer votes. Production of highly rated existing products and services is increased, while low-rated products are discontinued.
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For producer goods, guiding principles such as overall labor-use reduction, energy-use reduction, material input recycling etc. are used in the formation of plans.
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Flat rate income tax is the only tax that is implemented. Tax is used to fund those activities that do not produce value, e.g healthcare, education, unemployment insurance etc.
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Digital direct democracy(mob-rule) is implemented to the maximum extent possible. The role of legislatures is reduced to a technocratic role of forming laws, while the actual voting is done through mob-rule. Voting on laws, policies and plans is done on a weekly basis, rather than voting every 4 years for leaders. This may seem cumbersome, but with common ownership comes shared responsibility. The alternative is giving responsibility to leaders who may form a self-serving bureaucracy.
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Military power is equally distributed by creating armories housing guns, ammunition, armored vehicles, drones etc. Such armories are placed in every community, with open access. The entire population receives military training.
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A separate standing army that is hierarchically organized and answers directly to the state is also present. Their military power is consciously kept lower than the total military power of the general population. This solves the tankie vs anarkiddy debate. The state is now both effective in fighting domestic and foreign counterrevolution (satisfying tankies) while true power is held by the people(satisfying anarkiddies).
I'd like to hear your critique of my ideas and also want to know your own clear program.
EDIT: It's telling that no one has posted their own idea of socialism, very few leftists actually know what they want and yet think it's reasonable to ask why people don't want "socialism". You need a concrete idea of what socialism actually is.
bruh what do you think this economy does? do those people still exist? yes. shut up please, yikes, what's this law of value you just keep telling me about? you cant just pick a thing and say its a law, cmon.
Law of value : Commodities exchange according to the SNLT needed to produce them. In a socialist society, commodity production is eliminated, but the law of value should still be followed as it is what enables us to accurately judge the true costs of products and services. How exactly the law is implemented is up to us.
You are pointing out one of the contradictions of capitalism, eliminating low-wage jobs results in people having no money to buy goods and services and therefoce, reduced profits. In a socialist society, profit is no longer a constraint, meaning there is no limit to how many jobs you can eliminate, and the unemployed can be supported through income tax on the fewer higher productivity workers.
gonna hit this one with a boo, chief. just give everyone in base of need. that's it. no going around discriminating and judging people. what about the disabled? mothers? dunno, guess they aint valuable. artists? who knows how much they are valuable. who gets to decide who is valuable? bet those people are pretty valuable arent they
Good point about the mothers. Under capitalism, women are expected to do a certain amount of uncompensated labor because of their gender. Under this version of "socialism" they would also be. A good hint that u/weshallovercum's system is just capitalism with extra steps.
The labor of raising children will surely be compensated in the system I'm proposing, I never said they wouldn't. The wages of child-raising would be paid from the income tax. The exact amount of this wage would be determined democratically, and since the total tax fund is limited, it would come at the expense of wages paid for education, healthcare etc. So it's a political question, but surely a socialist society will compensate child rearing.
I already mentioned that paying equal wages makes economic calculation impossible. Who or what would decide what "need" is? The wages of maternal care, disabled people, unemployed etc can be payed from the income taxes. Since they are either not doing work or doing unproductive work, their wages can simply be some standard living wage. But it must be remembered that their wages only exist because others are doing productive work. The actual wages of those doing productive work cannot simply be based on subjective factors, but must follow the law of value.