Gotha
> Programme" has been quoted endlessly on LBO, so I won't quote it again. But
> while labour time chits might look like money, they don't function the same
way
> in a socialist society because they aren't a commodity which can be bought
and
> sold. Money is a commodity. The key element with these labour chits is
time.
> Four hours of time gets you four hours from the social store of goods and
> services, with the necessary deductions to keep the means of production
going.
> You can't accumulate these chits to buy the means of production and employ
> people for wages: people aren't selling their skills and time as commodities
to
> be used by the employing class to accumulate the commodities the employed
> produce for them to sell for profit.
*******
John Thornton responded:
How do I buy a home with labor time chits?
****** MB) By putting in an amount of labour time equivalent to that involved in contructing the home you want. ********* JT: How do I arrange financing or are loans done away with as well? ***** MB) See above. I can imagine a techincal way, if you wish. Let's say labour time put into the social store of goods and services is measured electronically. Then, I say, "One hour of my necessary labour time is to go towards my housing until I've put the necessary amount of labour time into the social store." ****** JT:
If so how do I buy a home with no loan?
MB) See above. But think for yourself. Why is it necessary to have finance capitalists to build a home? Why is it necessary for finance capitalists to make profits? ********** JT: What is to stop me from trading my labor time chits with my neighbor in exchange for sex that she uses to buy groceries or new tires for her car? ***********
MB) Rules, if we want them e.g. one person cannot use another person's chits.
********** JT:
If I do this how much different in reality will these chits be than money? *********** MB) Money is a commodity which can be used to make more money usually by buying labour power for its going price on the market to produce goods and services for sale with a view to profit. If there is no employing class because the means of production and land are socially owned and democratically managed according to a common plan, a electronic 'bip' which shows that you've put your time in, will remain yours but nobody elses to use. ************** JT:
There was a time when food stamps (food chits) were given to people and they ended up being used like money to purchase sex, drugs, radios. etc. It's no use saying this will all be worked out by future generations. I know it will but it will be worked out in future generations by persons with a coherent plan. If you have no plan no one will listen to you. ********
MB)
I'm sure that Marx would agree. We, the associated producers, would need to come up with a common plan of what we need after we have taken over the means of production. I think the IWW model is the best way to get to THAT point. The point of socialism is to increase our free-time, not to "grow a business", not to feed the wealth we create to parasitic classes of State bureaucrats, finance capitalists, industrial capitalists and landlords so that they can control the political State and rule us. The point of communism is to abolish wage-slavery and enjoy the freedom we deserve.
Mike B)
http://www.iww.org.au/node/10 "Would you have freedom from wage-slavery.." Joe Hill http://www.iww.org/en/join
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