Chapter 5: Globalization of Planned Economy
5.2. From trade to economic cooperation
When a global sustainable planned economy is realized, the biggest change that will occur in the world economy will be the disappearance of the economic activity known as trade, whether it is "free trade" or "protectionist trade." This is in a parallel relationship with the disappearance of commerce at the "single country" level. This is a natural fact, given that trade means commercial activity that crosses the borders of sea and land.
However, even if trade disappears, it does not mean that there will be a shift to a completely self-sufficient system at the "single country" level. The overseas procurement of goods that are difficult to produce in one's own country, including food, will continue. However, this will no longer be done in the commercial form of trade, but in the form of free economic cooperation.
It is important to note that the economic cooperation referred to here is not a donating economic act implemented as "assistance" to "developing countries" as in the case of economic cooperation under capitalist economies, but rather is, in principle, an everyday reciprocal economic act.
An imperfect precedent for such an attempt was the economic cooperation system (COMECON) of the socialist economic bloc centered on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but this adopted a uniform division of labor system, which led to bias in the industrial structure of the member countries. Economic cooperation in a sustainable planned economy is flexible inter-regional cooperation that does not rely on such a uniform division of labor.
In fact, the world economic plan mentioned in the previous section is itself a general guideline for economic cooperation, but concrete economic cooperation is carried out at the level of neighboring economic cooperation bloc, taking into account geographical proximity. As will be discussed again in the next chapter, the Great-Zone bloc that divides the world into five functions as an economic cooperation bloc.
Among this economic cooperation, food is directly linked to human life and death and is heavily dependent on natural conditions, so it is necessary to draw up a plan for it separately from regular economic plans, but actual economic cooperation will still be carried out on the Great-Zonal level.
Furthermore, as part of economic cooperation, there is the issue of transnational management of natural resources that serve as energy sources. As discussed in my On Communism, natural resources will not be left to nationalism, but will be placed under transnational management as unowned property that belongs to no one, with a World Natural Resources Organization being set up as the management body, and sustainable joint mining will be carried out. The world economic plan will also encompass a plan for the distribution of these resources.
👉The table of contents so far is here.
👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.
