3.1.2.2.9 Collective Spending
Each society organizes a service that meets the collective needs of a particular territory. Collective services need cash assets for public spending. Such assets are provided by the tax policy arising from the sale of commodities, enterprise profit and workers’ income.
Authority determines tax policy on the territory where it has sovereignty. In the present-day social orders, the people choose their representatives in power, and they are supposed to represent their tax interests. However, in practice, the chosen representatives in power are, as a general rule, more inclined to follow their interests or to represent the interests of the privileged society members who have a strong influence on policymaking.
Society does not impact the tax policy, even if authorities try hard to meet their tax policy needs. Therefore, the tax policy is permanently alienated from the members of the society, and they cannot accept it as their own. People are forced to accept the tax policy created by the authorities and, therefore, experience it as violence against their own needs. Such circumstances result in dissatisfaction with the tax payment and an insufficiently built attitude toward collective ownership.
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Socialism needs a tax policy as well. However, it would substantially differ from the tax policy in capitalism. The commune’s population will directly tailor the new tax policy.
Realized profit of public enterprises is registered in the commune’s administrative centre to determine each enterprise’s productivity. Then all the money is pooled in the public bank of the commune. The pulled funds enable the population to distribute joint money for the needs of individual and public spending and the development of the economy. The result defines collective monetary policy and directs joint action.
The distribution takes place using the application over the Internet, where people choose desired values within possible value ranges determined by the commune’s leadership and approved by its assembly. An inhabitant who needs more money for the collective spending will be setting aside more money for it than for other assets. A more significant amount of money intended for collective spending will satisfy the collective social needs to a greater extent. Still, it will diminish the funds designed for individual expenditure and economic development. The sum of the values opted for collective spending by all inhabitants in the function of their voting powers will represent a total amount of money intended for collective spending
It is worth mentioning that the assets intended for collective spending serve exclusively for collaborative consumption and not for people’s incomes. Incomes of individuals are paid from the fund of individual expenditures. The elemental distribution of the money intended for collective spending is divided into assets designed to maintain and build communal facilities.
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Monetary assets intended for maintenance of communal facilities will need to be further separated among the commune’s administration, management, judiciary, social protection, health care, education, science, culture, sports and recreation, the environment arrangement for the needs of infrastructure, transport, and other forms of consumption.
The commune’s leadership would set possible value ranges for distributing money to specific groups. They will select the limits for minimal resources that certain groups of collective spending must have to ensure their functioning and the optimal and maximal possible amount of money for certain forms of consumption.
People of the commune who assess that a specific form of collective spending requires a larger amount of money to meet their own needs to a greater extent will appropriate a larger amount of money for such requirements at the expense of the less necessary form of spending. The statements of all the commune inhabitants are then processed in the commune’s administrative centre. The sum of all values stated per groups in the function of the economic voting power of the population would represent the ratio of cash asset distribution.
The known amounts intended for the collective spending groups will create a certain standard for these groups. Based on practice, inhabitants will learn whether it will be necessary to increase or decrease cash assets for the needs of particular groups. Each collective spending group has a large number of minor and significant expenses and a limited amount of money at its disposal. However, inhabitants do not necessarily need to be interested in further money distribution. However, the distribution may be carried out by interested individuals as long as they are interested.
The money for the collective spending might also be distributed to non-profit organizations that offer the highest satisfaction to society’s needs. That is similar to the principle of money distribution for the development of the economy. The evaluation of such satisfaction will be performed by arbitration commissions, evaluation courts, various associations, and directly by inhabitants of the commune. In a society where such work evaluations directly impact income or even the distribution of income-based points of workers, the use of money for the collective spending needs will be very responsible.
Authorized managers will determine the final distribution of money assets under each spending group. Due to the high level of responsibility, the managers will use the money intended for collective spending in some kind of agreement with the interested population. In socialism, managers will be the workers who can no longer meet their own needs without first meeting the social conditions. Such a principle guarantees that the final distribution of even the most negligible money assets intended for collective spending will be earmarked in a fashion allowing the most efficient way to meet social needs.
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The population also directly impacts the construction of new facilities of social interest. Construction of the social standard-related facilities refers to building infrastructure and purchasing the equipment that requires large amounts of money. In this connection, the more the population opts for a larger quantity of funds intended for collective spending, including the need for necessary construction, the more possibilities will be in place to build many communal standard facilities and vice versa.
The leadership of the commune, based on the amount of money at the disposition and the social needs, will plan the construction of new facilities. It will define the technical characteristics and the amount of money necessary for such construction.
Since any construction requires a large amount of money and extensive collective work and introduces lasting changes in the commune’s structure, the population needs to approve such a building through a referendum. Therefore, each inhabitant will have to consent to build capital or expensive project and may express their views about the construction of any facility in the commune. Capital projects will be developed if most of the commune’s population approves of them. Other facilities of lower significance that require less investment will need a majority of votes on the project.
The proposed system of distribution of money for collective spending is subject to social agreement, which contributes to the constructive orientation of society. In socialism, the population has the power to manage collective spending for the first time directly. Such control will make the people accept collaborative spending as their own. In such a system, communal ownership is no longer alienated in any segment, making the population accept its community. In such a community, one may expect a responsible attitude of the people toward the collective property.
Collective spending is the most rational form of consumption and allows the highest degree of meeting social needs. Therefore, the population may be expected to increase the quantity of money intended for collective spending, contributing to society’s well-being and prosperity.
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The commune is fully sovereign in the allocation of its collective spending assets. However, in terms of its political affiliation, the commune represents a part of the state community. It regulates relations with other communes through delegates in the assembly of a broader territorial community. Representatives of all communes on the state territory establish collective spending at the state level in the federal parliament.
Funds for federal spending are needed for the state budget. The funds are used for the needs of administration, state defence, and the construction and maintenance of facilities of national interest. When the necessary funds for the needs of the state are determined, they are collected in proportion to the income of the commune and sent to the federal administration.
The distribution of money at the federal level is created by state leadership and approved by delegates of the communes in the national assembly or parliament, the same as today. In other words, the commune population would not directly impact the formation and distribution of cash assets for collective spending at the federal level. Nevertheless, it may be expected that the people accustomed to directly deciding about the joint spending at the commune level will seek the same right at the national level. Direct decision-making by the population at the federal level is technically feasible, as is the decision-making at the commune level; however, it requires compatibility of the decision-making systems. In other words, all communes in the state would need to accept such, or a similar, system.
