Originally published at: Income in a Post-Capitalist Society: Who Decides? - Participatory Economy
The question of income in a socialist society has been debated for a long time, going all the way back to Marx’s famous slogan “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, published in his Critique of the Gotha Programme in 1875. What anti-capitalists all agree on is the need to…
Nice Post Jason. Under the “power via democratic headings” I would suggest adapting Sociocracy as a means for decision making. I’ve written a brief article about this that I could share with you if you like.
Under “Deciding Income for Work” I’d go for a balanced approach. For example, industry standards would likely emerge at the societal level for how typical jobs are enumerated. That information could be shared with workplaces to aid in the decision making process taking into account unique aspects of each workplace.
Under “Deciding income for needs” I would suggest that to the extent possible, public goods should have some kind of price tag attached to them and people who don’t work would receive a direct payment. It might take into account variabilities in costs between different locations. For example rural vs urban issues where public transportation is more cost effective in urban areas. People need to make choices. We dont want to create a free ride economy at the expense of those working. As for decision making processes, same as above, where the societal provides input and perhaps even upper and lower bounds, leaving the ultimate decision with the locals.
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Thanks Claude. Yes, please do share your article you’ve written about sociocracy. I am a fan of sociocracy and I think it is a detailed self-governance system which workplaces could choose to use. I like your suggestions, and the main point I was aiming to make in the article is that these are all options for the society to choose within the federational structures and planning procedures.
I would suggest referring to mechanism design and implementation theories to investigate this problem.
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