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.

  1. 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.

  2. "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.

  3. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  • mayor_pete_buttigieg [she/her]
    1·
    4 years ago

    I think the fact that Leftists don't have a" specific program" for socialism is a good thing. The conditions under which socialism could be achieved are not known ahead of time. In what scenario are you able to make your ideas a reality? I don't think any of this could be implemented without a small group, who has taken control in the wake of a revolution (a vanguard party). However, this group would lack the stability, resources, and support, to make such an involved system overnight.

    Also your socialist country includes unemployment insurance? Wat? Try again.

    Why do you like the phrase "clear and distinct idea" so much? Are you trying to refer to obsolete 17th century epistemology?

    • weshallovercum [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I think the fact that Leftists don’t have a" specific program" for socialism is a good thing.

      The lack of a concrete program, or even discussion towards one is why socialism now means anything from Norway to Cuba. It is symptomatic of leftists inability to articulate their criticism of capitalism beyond what capitalists themselves criticize it for. Bill Gates himself warns of climate change, inequality etc.

      The conditions under which socialism could be achieved are not known ahead of time

      The conditions are already ripe in advanced countries, where the contradictions of capitalism has resulted in stagnating wages for 40 years.

      In what scenario are you able to make your ideas a reality? I don’t think any of this could be implemented without a small group, who has taken control in the wake of a revolution (a vanguard party).

      The political difficulty of any attempt of socialism is not an argument against the specific content of the idea. What is more important is its feasibility, desirability and rationality. I'm not sure why a "small" party is needed. If these ideas are to implemented through democratic voting, then naturally you need a large party that represents the majority. If you want to implement these ideas by force, then that is no longer an issue of parties, big or small, but an issue of military power.

      Also your socialist country includes unemployment insurance?

      Some people in society would be unable to work due to physical or mental issues.

      Why do you like the phrase “clear and distinct idea” so much? Are you trying to refer to obsolete 17th century epistemology?

      I dislike it when I ask leftists what they mean by socialism and they say vague things like "democratic planning" or "FALGSC". In real life, the actual dirty work of implementing socialism requires concrete action based on a very clear and unambiguous idea of what kind of society we actually want. So of course I would vote for M4A and higher wages and subsidized green energy, but if those are the only concrete actions we talk about, then we are not really socialists.

      We cannot keep saying that socialism is something implemented far in the future. If we cannot prove logically why socialism is beneficial now itself, there is no reason to believe that we can prove socialism is beneficial in the distant future after we have implemented all the social democratic policies. European countries are clear examples of this. The socialists who allied with socdems won their reforms. And what is happening now? Socialism is as distant as ever, while fascists are gaining power.