The Future of Economics
The market economy is accepted as the most productive because it brings the most significant benefits to society. Employers offer jobs on the free market, and workers provide their abilities to work. By definition of the labour market, employers and workers collaborate for mutual benefits that should optimally satisfy their needs. In practice, it does not happen this way because unemployment puts employers in a privileged position in which they exploit workers.
A good economy requires a balance between supply and demand for work, and this will be achieved by creating an equal number of jobs to the number of workers. Full employment will be realized by reducing work hours proportionally to the rate of unemployment. It will increase the demand for workers in the free market and bring more justice to the economy.
However, nobody in today’s world thinks that most of the problems of today’s market economy are primarily based on the underdevelopment of the market economy. The main problem of today’s market economy is not too much market, but rather, not enough market.
Workers in capitalism have jobs protected by laws and unions, and that means the jobs in capitalism are privileged, although to a lesser extent than in socialism. A more productive worker cannot apply for a work position already taken by another worker. That is the reason the division of work in capitalism cannot allocate the labour most efficiently and achieve maximum productivity possible. Privileges are the main mistakes of every society. One should protect the existence of workers, not jobs.
***
A better future of humankind necessarily requires that workers become subjects with equal rights in the process of production. This will be achieved when all the workers have equal opportunities to choose any job they want in public companies. We need to establish the standard for the selection of workers, and history has already presented that there is no more socially justified principle of employment than hiring the best available worker at every work post.
People are taught by capitalism to love competition, and being the winner brings enormous satisfaction. People do not hesitate to exert an extreme effort to reach such a goal. Why would we not open competitions for every public workplace at any time? The realization of such an idea is just a technical problem, while it will bring enormous benefits to society.
To achieve such an economic system, we need to find an efficient way to evaluate the productivity of work offers, define job responsibilities, and harmonize rewards for work at any time. In short, the workers who offer the highest productivity and accountability and demand the lowest salary should get any public job at any time. It would be nothing else but a developed market of work. However, it will require time for the market of work to develop enough and be accepted by people.
The work competition in the market of work will incentivize workers much more than capitalism can through wages. The existence of workers would never be endangered because every worker will be able to find a job in a fully employed environment. It would establish such a rigid form for worker’s responsibility that no one would dare to offer work proposals they would not be able to meet. The market will also regulate workers’ salaries in the most objective way. The living standards for all people will increase in an unprecedented way. People will be thrilled with living in such a system. The following text defines the developed market of work.
***
There is no fairer or better division of labour than a competition of workers through their labour productivity for any workplace at any time. Productivity would be measured by money earned, by the amount and quality of goods produced, or by rating the productivity of workers by consumers. A worker who offers higher profits, more manufactured goods, a better, cleaner and cheaper production will get the desired job. Comparing the productivities of workers may be complex but also very simple.
Such division of labour seems impossible because it has never existed. The reason such a division of work has never existed is nobody believed that it is possible and did not invest any effort in developing such an idea. Aleksandar Šarović has taken into account the potential problems that such a division of work might bring and formed solutions that would solve such problems. Once people accept such a division of labour, it will bring considerable economic benefits to all.
Of course, this division of work will relate only to public companies, because if it applies to private enterprises, that would practically mean a seizure of private property. Private companies will continue their businesses as they do today.
It will be necessary to regulate and democratically accept a new division of labour in public companies by the law. One day, a proposed division of work will be accepted by society because it is the best possible. The principles of such a division of labour are natural and straightforward.
A worker who offers the highest productivity for any workplace at any time immediately becomes a prime candidate for that position, regardless of whether the position is occupied or not. If there is already an employed worker at such a workplace who does not want to leave their job, they would have to accept the productivity offered by the competitors, and in that case, they would continue to hold their work positions. If they would not be able to take the new responsibilities or would not want it, they will immediately vacate the workplace and leave it to the competitor.
The existential security of workers is necessary as a condition of stability for society, and therefore the society will guarantee it. In the proposed system, all workers will automatically be economically secured after leaving any job. Losing a job will not create income stress, and workers will have the ability to find a new one in a full-employment environment quickly.
Such security will remove the great fear of unemployment that is prevalent around the world. Capitalism finds the primary motivation for work from the fear of economic survival of the workers, and that is the reason it does not provide enough financial security to the people. The new system will build motivation for work from the free choice of choosing work and in the satisfaction that comes from it.
***
The advantages of such a division of work will be enormous. The best worker in every workplace ensures maximum productivity for companies and the best satisfaction of the people’s needs. Thus, such a division of labour finds its justification.
Besides, the labour market will give people the freedom to choose jobs that they love more and therefore, they will enjoy work far more than they do today. Work will become a direct value for itself.
Furthermore, the open labour market will eliminate privileges. Today, people might experience a loss of privileges as significant inconveniences. However, it should be said that privileges are one of the leading causes of problems in society. Eliminating privileges means reducing, if not removing, corruption, immorality and destructive issues in today’s society.
With time, people will realize that the loss of privileges would considerably increase the possibility of finding work that will enhance the personal productive power of workers. The power of being develops creativity and brings great and stable satisfaction that privileges could not achieve. That is the reason the proposed labour market will be accepted one day and bring virtually unlimited benefits across society.
***
The labour market will regulate the price of labour. This will be achieved by giving the job with limited productivity to the worker who demands the lowest price for current work and, consequently, a lower income. The cost of ongoing work will be one of the factors that determine the amount of income for workers. In this regard, the market of work will make suitable jobs achieve lower salaries, and inconvenient jobs will be compensated with higher payments. In such a way, a developed market of work will form an objective price of labour and balance the interest in all jobs.
Given that the workers will determine the amount of their income themselves, they will also be most satisfied with their earnings. Unions as mediators between the employers and the employees will no longer be required.
The work must become easily accessible to all. In order to achieve a balance between labor supply and demand, it will be necessary to equate the number of jobs with the number of workers. Otherwise, there could be an unnecessary struggle for jobs. If the creation of new jobs will not be necessary, full employment will be established by reducing working hours in proportion to the unemployment rate. This policy must apply to both the public and private companies. Such a measure will achieve full employment of workers. In addition, it will reduce the exploitation of workers by employers until it is abolished and will enable the establishment of an acceptable distribution of income for all workers. Such a measure will finally establish general stability in society.
***
The system would have no meaning without efficient regulation of workers’ responsibilities. If the workers increase the competitive powers by offering productivities that they would not be able to realize, the irresponsibility of people will make the system collapse. Today, for example, politicians do precisely that, and this is one of the leading causes of immorality and disappointments of society.
The new economy will form a very efficient method of accountability for the realization of productivities workers offer so that they would not dare to propose productivities they cannot accomplish. It will be realized in such a way that workers would guarantee the productivity they provide by a new value called “a productive value of a worker.”
The productive value of workers numerically presents the total contribution of each person in the creation of values in society. It will be something similar to the shares of corporations. These shares will bring workers a regular income that will, among other things, be proportional to the value of their past work. People will also inherit these values from their ancestors.
By using the value of past work, one could form an effective system of bearing the workers’ responsibilities for realizing offered productivity in the manufacturing process. If workers do not meet the proposed productivities, they will take responsibility by losing the values of their past work proportionally to not realized productivity. Also, it will apply to any damage people may produce to society. It sounds complicated, but the implementation of such responsibility may also be very straightforward with the help of democratic anarchy, which is explained later. The possible loss of the value that presents the productive power of workers will prevent workers from offering productivities they cannot achieve.
The workers will numerically determine the heights of their responsibilities in the production processes of public companies. The higher accountabilities the workers offer for the desired workplace, the greater right to work they will have.
In the case that the company’s revenue increases, the workers will share the profit in publicly owned companies, proportionally to numerically determined responsibilities they propose for their work. Such gain will be expressed in a value that presents the workers’ productive power. And vice versa, in case of production losses, workers who propose higher responsibility for their work will realize more significant loses in values representing their productive power.
***
Finally, one should ask whether formal education is necessary for work. Could workers compete for work positions regardless of the level of education they possess? Alternatively, can a person who knows mechanics compete for the job of a dentist? Of course not, but also one should not condition anyone’s employment to be dependent on the possession of diplomas. Firstly, a degree does not guarantee skilfulness. Secondly, conditioning work with diplomas unnecessarily reduces access to desired jobs. The limitation of employment with possession of a degree has evolved to the level of absurdity, which restricts the freedom of labour to a vast extent.
Besides, the vast volume of knowledge that the education system imposes usually has no connection with the profession of people. It serves authorities to ensure the survival of an authoritarian system and presents an unnecessary burden that alienates students from reality. In this regard, it is necessary to remove education as a bureaucratic requirement for having the right to work.
The new system will develop such a significant responsibility of the workers for the jobs they perform so they will not dare to apply for jobs if they do not have enough knowledge. This means that formal education in the future will still be welcome, but not necessary because the knowledge can be acquired independently or in the best way, through working practice.
***
No economy can be more productive than the one where the best available worker gets each job. Therefore, public companies will become significantly more productive than private ones. Under the competitive pressures of public companies, the owners of private companies will try to increase their productivity as public companies do. Still, they could not go far enough because they would not have the operational capabilities to oppose public companies. Given that workers in private companies would not have the freedom as workers in public companies, and would not be able to participate in sharing the profits, they will be less interested in working for private companies.
Some regions in the world will one day accept the open work competition because a better division of labour could not exist. The higher productivity of the public companies will force the owners of private companies to join them. The owners of private companies will, in exchange for their firms, get the equivalent value that presents their productive power, which will proportionately increase their incomes in public companies.
Also, owners of private companies will find out that large companies are more stable to conjuncture changes, which will ensure greater stability of the economy and the values they possess. When the owners of private companies get the chance to join such a company, they would most likely do so, because it would preserve more of their capital values.
One can expect that by the time all companies in a region will merge into one public company, which will operate similarly to big corporations. The company will have a central leadership that will establish effective coordination of work. It will open job positions where they are most needed and will close off ones that are not needed enough. Such an organization of the economy will decrease market competition between companies, but it will ensure the efficiency of production by lowering the level of competition from the companies to the level of jobs.
The high responsibility that the new system of work division requires from workers will force manufacturers to avoid economic losses in an unpredictable market by organizing production on the demand of consumers. People will democratically determine the height of taxes and directly allocate the tax fund for various consumer groups of collective consumption. People will directly determine their joined consumption, and this will present the basis of a democratically planned economy. Furthermore, individual consumers will be increasingly required to order their expensive needs in advance. Production based on the orders of consumers presents the planned economy. It is the most stable production possible.
Furthermore, great responsibility in the production process will force the workers to establish their mutual relations more on cooperation than on competition, at all levels of production processes and thus, it will contribute to the productive development of society. The free growth of the market economy will, therefore, develop a democratically planned economy.
The complete implementation of equal human rights in the economy should be called socialism. Nothing else deserves this name. Socialism will come spontaneously as the final result of full employment.
This is just a basic idea about the future of economics. It can be better understood by reading and analyzing my book “Humanism” available free of charge here: Table of Contens.
February 12, 2010
