essays-ccs/paul_cockshott_cyber_communism.md

Paul Cockshott - Cyber-Communism

Taken from his book, Towards a New Socialism, audiobook here, and specifically his youtube lectures Going beyond Money, and Getting down to details.

How it works

• Production takes place. All goods / services are valued by their composite labor time (in labor voucher hours, see below). Factor in depreciation and education into cost. For example, a smartphone might cost 0.5 labor hours. Goods that have neglible marginal cost (~ 0 labor hours) would be free.
• Open, publicly funded research and development is shared by all, with the goal of decreasing the labor time cost of every good.
• Workers are paid in labor vouchers per hour work performed. Working 8 hours would earn you 8 LVH (labor voucher hours). Multipliers may be used if certain work is deemed more necessary, or dangerous, but most likely limited by a certain ratio to foster community.
• Goods are sold in public shops.
• Shop managers are instructed to adjust labor prices so that all goods are sold. While a good selling out is itself an indicator of demand, adjusting by a certain limited ratio gives more demand information, and prevents unwanted goods from going to waste.
• Each good now has a ratio of its sold labor time to actual labor time cost.
• If goods are selling above their actual labor cost (ratio > 1), that means society wants more labor allocated to produce that good. Below that means they want less labor allocated.
• Planners adjust output targets based on this demand.
• Planners do material balances to derive gross output requirements (raw materials + intermediate materials + labor). Input-output tables are solved using linear algebra.
• They compare these requirements with the actual resources available. Some of these might be set by environmental constraints, or limited quantities.
• Population uses direct democracy to vote on how much labor to allocate to non-consumer goods (see below).
• They see if the final output targets can be met, and if not, go back to the adjust output targets step.
• Finally, form a detailed production plan, broadcast it over the internet to all productive facilities, monitor production (and sales) in real-time. Adjust plan accordingly.

Essentials

Labor vouchers

• Earned by workers. 1 LVH = 1 Labor Voucher Hour earned per hour of work.
• Attached to a single person / family, likely through a credit card.
• Can only be exchanged for consumer goods. You cannot transfer them to another person. Buying absentee property is illegal.
• Are destroyed after being used in shops.
• Possibly destroyed after a certain amount of time (to prevent hoarding)
• Labor time across the economy is preserved. If there are 6 million working people in a country :
  • Labor ministry issues 6 million person-years vouchers to workers.
  • 0 = Labor hours used producing non-consumer goods ( 2 million person-years ) + labor hours used in consumer goods production ( 4 million person-years ) = cost of goods in shops ( 4 million person-years ) + ( 2 million person-years cancelled for social tax bin )
  • Workers spend 4 million in the shops, social income tax of 2 million ( to provide for social services ), and the 6 million labor hours are fully canceled.
  • This defetishizes consumer-producer relations, since you can see exactly how human labor is being allocated, and spent.

Direct democracy for non-consumer goods

• New enterprises, entertainment, research and development, social services are all examples of non-consumer goods.
• Society votes on how much labor to devote to social services: education, health care, child care, environmental protection, national defense. If a country has 6 million adult workers, it might allocate 2 million people to non-consumer goods.
• Major strategic decisions taken democratically by all the interested population. Minor decisions left to planners. Information open to all, voting available to all.