[Nettime-bold] New communism

The following is a plan for what be called a Communist/Democratic state.

It will be based groups of communities that will make up a nation. A communities will normally be sized from 10,000 to 30,000 people (but when put next to each other they make bigger things) they will essentially consist of a residential area an industrial area and gigantic superstore where you can buy everything. The residential area would most likely be a group of apartment buildings. The industrial area will just be an area where work is done in some places that may be partly removed for various reasons. All work will be done here in what I like to call "The Factories". The sort of work done in factories will depend on the state of the nation and what is demanded nationwide. Transport between the "houses" and "Factories" will quite simply be a shuttle service.

All goods produced across the country where their value will be assessed in man hours.

The value of these will then be divided equally to every working citizen in the nation to spend at their discretion. The goods that have been produced will then be redistributed to all communities to what could be called "stores" and then residents can use their credits to make purchases, they can buy what they want but they wont be able to buy more then any other people.

The nation will be run democratically to decide on what sort services should be provided nationally eg. army, health, education, arts grants, national museums etc.

First people will vote on whether one of these services is needed, it will then be followed by another vote where it is chosen to gauge what size this service should be.

The costs of these services will be deducted from the national pool, It will be a from of taxation but at level that is chosen by the people.

People can call for vote to have a national service changed or disbanded, There would need to be an initial outcry by the public then the receiving of submissions a national vote would take place on the change of a particular service.

On a communal level an election could be called if the community were wanting to build some sort of communal facility such as a swimming pool etc, But the money would not come from a national pool but would be paid for by all those in the community of which the facility would be.

Transport of freight would be a national cost but it would be a very important service.

The production of each community would need to be exported to other communities to either be consumed by the people at one of these many other communities or to go to other factories to processed into higher-grade goods.

This transport service would have to be run by managers who strive to make it as efficient as possible, these people would not be producing anything but they would still draw the same wage as everybody else.

Managers will also be needed at every stage of the production process in order to preserve efficiency they will also not actually produce anything but will receive a wage like everyone else.

Travel between communities will cost the individual money in order to create an initial service. If people choose, they can have a free travel system but that would depend on the vote.

This is a sociological system based on the ideas of communism and on democracy, it is a system that makes all people equal and gives them the freedom to live as they want and to ultimately determine the path of civilization through time.

by James Tripe

P.S. These are the backbones of a society and they are its essence.

I have not told of what exactly each communities industries we be, I have not said what will be stocked at the stores, and I have not told you the name of the local bus driver because this is only the essence it is up to you to decide these things