Chapter 16.4.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 16: Economic Transition Plan I: Transition Period

16.4. Establishment of preparatory organizations for Consumer Business Cooperatives

The second pillar of the sustainable economic plan is consumption planning at the broad local level, the Zonelet. Once the sustainable planned economic system is complete, this will become a local economic plan formulated by the consumer business cooperatives themselves—cooperative organizations responsible for the supply of daily consumer goods—organized in each Zonelet.

During the transitional period, a comprehensive entity, which will be the predecessor of these consumer business cooperatives, will be established. This entity will have a structure similar to merged corporations in key industrial sectors, but since the future consumer business cooperatives will also be economic planning bodies, the predecessor organizations will also serve as preparatory organizations looking ahead to these planning bodies.

In other words, since the future consumer business cooperatives will also be the core organizations of a planned, free-of-charge supply system that does not rely on a monetary economy, the preparatory organizations for consumer business cooperatives during the transitional period will have the important task of preparing and rehearsing for the construction of such a free-of-charge supply system.

These preparatory organizations for consumer business cooperatives are similar to consumers' co-operatives that often coexist with commercial retail distribution capital even under developed capitalist economic systems, and it may be possible to establish them by reorganizing existing consumer cooperative organizations. Where consumers' co-operative do not exist, or even where they do, it is necessary to integrate retail distribution capital such as supermarkets and convenience stores, which form the core of retail distribution under the modern capitalist system. This integration process can be considered in line with that of merged corporations in key industrial sectors.

However, integrating coexisting for-profit retail capital and consumers' co-operative, which are legally incompatible business organizations, presents legal challenges. Nevertheless, the merged business entity as a preparatory organization for consumer cooperatives will be integrated as a special transitional entity that sublates the for-profit/non-profit dichotomy.

Furthermore, since the preparatory organization will be the predecessor organization for consumer cooperatives to be established in future broader Zonelets, it needs to be separate for each Zonelet. However, while the division of the Zonelets is still undecided, it may be acceptable to postpone the division and provisionally launch it as a nationwide organization for the time being. 

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism

Chapter 16.3.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 16: Economic Transition Plan I: Transition Period

16.3. Establishment of the preparatory organization for the Economic Planning Conference

After creating merged corporations that integrate the key industries included in the scope of the planned economy, the next step is to establish the preparatory organization for the Economic Planning Conference (hereinafter simply referred to as the preparatory organization), which will serve as the predecessor of the Economic Planning Conference, the body that will formulate and implement the future planned economy.

In a sustainable planned economy, the economic planning body is not an administrative central command body, but rather a collegial body jointly operated by the production business organizations themselves that are the subject of the planned economy. Therefore, the preparatory organization, which will be its predecessor, will also have a similar structure and will be composed as a collegial organization of the merged corporations that will be the predecessors of the production business organizations.

For this reason, the preparatory organization at its inception will likely take on the appearance of a kind of business association, but since the purpose of this preparatory organization is precisely to prepare for future economic planning activities, its main task will be to strive to develop the material and human resources necessary for the formulation and implementation of the economic plan.

As for the material resources necessary for the formulation and implementation of the economic plan, a large-scale computer system to be used in the plan is a typical example. As will be discussed again in a later appendix, economic planning is based on a sophisticated foundation of computational science.

On the other hand, the human resources base will primarily consist of training and deploying "environmental economic researchers (ecolonomists)," essential professionals who conduct economic analysis and forecasting from an environmental perspective in the practical application of economic planning, and "environmental economic analysts," who collect and analyze environmental economic data.

The Economic Planning Conference, which will be completed in the future, will function as a kind of economic decision-making body alongside the Common's Convention, which deliberates and decides on political issues. It will form a bicameral system with the Common's Convention, and therefore the preparatory organization will not be merely an incorporated association, but will have the legal status of a special public body.

For this reason, the preparatory organization will be organized as a conference with the executives in charge of each merged corporation as delegates, and during the transition period of the economic transition, conducting tabletop exercises of economic planning toward the formulation of the future formal first three-year economic plan will be an important task.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism

Chapter 16.2.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 16: Economic Transition Plan I: Transition Period

16.2. The integration process of key industries

The first hurdle in the transition period of the economic transition plan is the integration of key industries. In a sustainable planned economy, key industries are those sectors that fall within the scope of the planned economy.

While the definition of a key industry depends on the industrial classification, as mentioned in that section, in a sustainable planned economy whose primary objective is to ensure environmental sustainability, key industries refer to industrial sectors with a significant environmental impact.

Specifically, this will include industries such as steel, electricity, oil, shipbuilding, and machinery, as well as transportation, communications, and automobiles—industries that, even under the capitalist economic system, form the backbone of the economy as large corporations. The pharmaceutical sector, which operates on a separate production plan, also falls into this category.

These industrial sectors will be integrated into production business organizations as socially owned enterprises in the final stage of the sustainable planned economy. The aim of the integration of key industries during the transition period is to establish merged corporations that will serve as the precursors to these future production business organizations.

It must be acknowledged here that the integration of key industries is a completely different process from "nationalization" through the forced seizure of private companies, a common practice in socialist economic policies.

A sustainable planned economy does not presuppose the state as a political entity (as I have written), so "nationalization" is simply impossible. Rather, it means integrating key industrial entities, which often exist in the form of joint-stock companies under a capitalist economic system, into a single company for each industry.

In this respect, under today's capitalist economic system, competing companies in each industry form some kind of industry association and act in a cooperative manner.

However, these industry associations do not cooperatively develop production activities themselves, but rather, in many cases, function as a kind of pressure group that lobbies the political world to protect the interests of the entire industry, and are often vested interest groups that become breeding grounds for corruption.

In contrast, the merged enterprises that will form the predecessors of future production business organizations are cooperative joint companies aimed at developing production activities collaboratively, and will form trusts that are prohibited under antitrust laws under capitalism. Therefore, in order to legalize these precursor-type merged corporations, it will be necessary to amend the existing Antimonopoly Act.

The legal status of a merged corporation at its inception is not that of a joint-stock company, but rather a special transitional company. Therefore, its internal structure will also include internal organs such as a management committee and a workers' representative committee, similar to those of a future production business organization.

It is also important to note that this corporate integration process is carried out mandatorily based on law, and is entirely different from corporate mergers that are carried out based on voluntary agreements (contracts) between individual companies.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 16.1.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 16: Economic Transition Plan I: Transition Period

16.1. Overview of the transition period

The transition period is the starting point of the economic transition plan, which aims to build a sustainable planned economic system that will ultimately lead to the abolition of the monetary economy worldwide. This period is the most important and delicate process, corresponding to the first step in moving away from the capitalist market economy.

In historical examples of overall economic system transitions, significant disruption often occurs in this initial step, corresponding to the transition period. This is because politically driven, hasty transitions are often forced through as a shock therapy-like, all-or-nothing approach.

To avoid such disruption, it is necessary to establish a planned and gradual transition preparation process using an uncompromising, gradual approach. Here, the term "gradual approach" is often synonymous with "compromising," resulting in incomplete transitions. However, gradualism and compromise are not synonymous. Here, gradualism means steady progress that avoids haste.

Specifically, the primary objective during this transitional period is to steadily prepare for the establishment of a planned economy system, which will form the cornerstone of a sustainable planned economy, and for the abolition of the monetary system.

In this process, it is rational to prioritize the establishment of a planned economy system before the abolition of the monetary system, which is the ultimate and most difficult hurdle. The starting point is the integration of key industries toward the establishment of production organizations that will be the mainstays of the planned economy.

While the details will be discussed later, in short, this involves consolidating the key industries, which currently mostly exist in the form of joint-stock companies, into a single comprehensive company, and establishing a preparatory organization that will serve as the precursor to an autonomous economic planning institution by future production organizations.

In contrast, the abolition of the monetary system is a process that must be handled with the utmost caution, but during the transitional period, it will begin with trials of the free supply of consumer goods without monetary exchange.

This system involves the free provision of goods, primarily everyday necessities such as food, and some miscellaneous useful items. At this stage, it resembles a rationing system coexisting with a market economy, but it covers a wider range of items than a rationing system, and the range of items covered is gradually expanded over the course of time.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 15.5.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 15: Economic Transition Planning

15.5. Notification and trial implementation

A fundamental shift in an economic system significantly impacts the entire cycle of production, distribution, and consumption, making it prone to economic disruption. This is especially true with shock therapy-style transitions, but disruption can also occur with gradual methods.

While there are no technical measures to completely prevent such transitional disruption, minimizing it as much as possible requires implementing notification and trial implementation procedures at each stage of the transition.

Notification and trial implementation involve explaining the overall process and specific measures in the transition, ensuring full information disclosure, and then proceeding with the transition process while experimentally implementing each measure.

Among these, notification, which involves information disclosure, is a crucial key to minimizing disruption during the transition. This is because economic actors, including individuals, can anticipate and prepare for what is to come through notification. In this sense, being notified can be considered a right for all economic actors. 

There are two main types of notifications: those for specific industries and those for individual households. However, simply publishing a single notice in a public bulletin or on an official website is insufficient; both require written documentation and individual distribution. This is why they are called "notifications."

Notifications for industries aim to encourage businesses to proactively prepare for the transition through a circular document detailing the mechanisms and transition process of a sustainable planned economy.

Notifications for individual households aim to alleviate anxieties by distributing booklets that clearly explain the mechanisms of production, labor, and overall life under a sustainable planned economy to all households.

Based on these notifications, individual measures in the transition process will be implemented systematically. These transition measures may remain theoretical exercises or be actually implemented; the latter may be implemented partially or fully.

In that sense, the measures during the transition period are experimental, but within the three stages of the transition process—transition period → initial phase → completion phase—the transitional period is the most experimental, followed by the initial phase and completion phase, which are envisioned as moving towards full implementation.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 15.4.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 15: Economic Transition Planning

15.4. Liberation from the "concept of money"

In the transition to a sustainable planned economy that abolishes the monetary economy, while technical policies to ensure a smooth transition are important, it is also essential to promote a kind of conscious revolution that consciously liberates people from the concept of money that they almost unconsciously take for granted.

In the modern world, the monetary exchange system, in which all goods and services are acquired in exchange for money, is firmly established. People unconsciously take money for granted to the same extent as breathing air, making it extremely difficult to envision an economic system that operates without monetary exchange, but rather through free exchange or bartering.

In this regard, how humans acquire the concept of monetary exchange after birth is not fully understood, and remains a mystery, much like the process of acquiring one's native language after birth. Since there is no evidence of systematic monetary education being implemented at home or school, the majority of people's developmental process involves an unconscious acquisition process at the same level as acquiring one's native language, and by a certain age, they naturally become able to make simple purchases. 

Freeing people from the monetary concepts they have naturally acquired is not easy. While the acquisition of monetary concepts may occur unconsciously, liberation from them requires conscious and rigorous training. Examining the process and methods of liberation remains a largely unexplored challenge in behavioral economics.

Here too, if we were to adopt a shock therapy approach and immediately abolish the monetary economy, some people might react by hoarding goods in an attempt to monopolize them, which could lead to severe shortages. While desire for material desire is regulated unequally by the amount of money one holds under a monetary economy, it must be regulated by a different, fairer method under a non-monetary economy.

Whether material desires are acquired later in life or innate needs inherent to human beings as biological beings, controlling such desires is a crucial issue directly related to the success or failure of a sustainable planned economy, and, alongside liberation from the concept of money, is an inseparable challenge in behavioral economics.

While acknowledging these challenges, it is also necessary to incorporate liberation from the concept of money into the economic transition plan. In general, the smoothest transition would be to proceed through stages starting with information provision and education, followed by limited trials of a non-monetary economy, and finally to the full implementation of a non-monetary economy (For details, see Chapter 16 and below).

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 15.3.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 15: Economic Transition Planning

15.3. Transitional approach or Special Economic Zone approach?

During economic transitions, special economic zones are often established, granting specific regions special legal status and implementing different economic systems from other regions. This is often seen in the process of transitioning from a controlled economic system to a free-market economic system. China has utilized this most extensively.

This approach mitigates the economic chaos that often ensues when transitioning economic systems abruptly, and also has the significance of adapting the socio-economic system to the new economic system by first conducting trials in limited areas within the special economic zone.

Theoretically, such special economic zone systems can also be applied when transitioning from a free-market economy to a sustainable planned economy. For example, one could designate certain areas in urban and rural areas as "planned economic special zones" and conduct pilot trials of a sustainable planned economy in these limited areas.

However, regardless of the direction of the special economic zone system, granting special economic privileges to residents and registered corporations in designated areas violates the principle of equality before the law.

In particular, since a sustainable planned economy aims to abolish the monetary system, the unfairness of abolishing the monetary system only within special zones, and the resulting economic disruption, are not considered appropriate.

When transitioning to a sustainable planned economy, a uniform system transition across the entire region should be envisioned, rather than a special zone system. This approach can be called a "transitional approach" in contrast to a "special zone approach." A transitional approach is a method of systematically transitioning the economic system through stages, as we saw previously.

Incidentally, another method contrasted with the "transitional approach" is the "shock approach." This involves an immediate transition to the new economic system without stages, a kind of shock therapy. While there are examples of this being applied to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when transitioning to a capitalist market economy, it resulted in significant economic disruption at the expense of citizens' lives.

In this respect, the disruption that would be expected from immediately abolishing the monetary economy would be far greater than that of a rapid shift to a market economy, making such an approach out of the question. Ultimately, a transitional system accompanied by a meticulous economic transition plan is considered to be the most effective way to ensure a smooth transition to a sustainable planned economy.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.