Post-Scarcity Socialism

The world is haunted by a spectre - The spectre of abundance. Scarcity has been conquered. The resources, technology and human skills already exist to produce enough to amply satisfy likely human needs and wants. Many thinkers, whether be they admirers of John Lennon or Karl Marx, have envisioned the world in which there is no need for money, no market exchange, and no property.

Down through history, a visionary slogan has been whispered by a few held n ancient dream. Ever since human beings developed money, they have hated it and tried to rid themselves of it. The abolition of money the most radical demand of every social revolution for centuries past. We must not suppose that it is therefore destined to remain a Utopia, that the wheel will simply turn full circle once more. Today there is an entirely new element in the situation: Plenty. All previous societies have been rationed societies, based on the scarcity of food, clothing and shelter. The modern world is also a society of scarcity, but with a difference. Today's shortages are unnecessary; today's scarcity is artificial. More than that: this scarcity is achieved at the expense of strenuous effort, ingenious organization and the most sophisticated planning.

Money means rationing. It is only useful when there are shortages to be rationed. No one can buy or sell air: it's free because there is plenty of it around. Food, clothing, shelter and entertainment should be free as air. But the means of rationing scarcity themselves keep the scarcity in existence. The only excuse for money is that there is not enough wealth to go round but it is the money system which makes sure there cannot be enough to go round. By abolishing money we create the conditions where money is unnecessary. The money system is obsolete and anti-human. The world is crying out for change. Millions of children die each year of starvation while the rich spare themselves no luxury or indulgence.

The Socialist Party is propagating the notion of a money-free world. We must stop thinking of a moneyless society as an 'ultimate aim' with no effect upon our actions now. We must realise that the abolition of money (and prices and wages) is the immediate demand. A practical proposition and an urgent necessity, not something to be vaguely worked towards.

There is a commonly held view that automation and robotics are going to ensure that money will disappear as consequence of new technology. This is quite wrong. Today's capitalist society only automates to increase profits and for no other reason. Employers even take machines out and put workers back in if they find that labour-power is cheaper.  The argument for the Universal Basic Income (the citizens' wage) is that useless workers in industry will be gradually be laid off and paid for not working. The process will be extended until money can be abolished. In the meantime, those being paid for doing nothing will do what they like. What is wrong with this projection? Many things, but chiefly two. First, it fails to take account of the systematic nature of society. Second, it assumes that present-day society exhibits a harmony of interests. The matter is that workers are working not for the sake of the production of goods but the production of profits. Today's world is a jungle of conflicting vested interests. The abolition of money will represent the liberation of wage-slaves, but also the dispossession of master-class. Proponents of “free money” ignore the economic imperative of capitalism, enforced through competition, to accumulate more and more capital out of profits, and so profits must come first before meeting the consumption needs of the population. Catering for these is kept to the minimum to maintain productive efficiency or, in the case of 'free money' payments to the poor, to the minimum needed to avoid bread riots.

Some ask, that without the incentive of monetary reward, who will do the dirty work in a socialist society? Co-operative socially conscious adults will perform these tasks, as they will do everything else. Of course, some presently unpleasant jobs can be made pleasurable or unnecessary, but given that men and women will still have to do some things they dislike we can only suggest that it is better to live freely and engage in occasional chores than to be compelled to do so because of our poverty. Remember, in socialism individuals will have the opportunity to experience a variety of occupations; to do different things at different times. If there are shortages in socialism (and this could be so in times of natural disaster), society will democratically have to distribute available goods according to need. ‘From each according to ability to each according to need’ will be the economic law of socialism. Those who do not wish to co-operate in a socialist society will be free to stand aside. But why should anyone refuse to co-operate when it is in his or her material interest to do so? Socialism can only be achieved when men and women are conscious of the need for collective co-operation.

The Socialist Party is called Utopians because it dares to suggest that we could run our lives in a much more harmonious way, instead of succumbing to the prevailing view that things must carry on more or less as they are. The idea of socialism stopped being an unrealisable dream once capitalism reached the level of industrial technology for the potential to produce an abundance of goods to meet everyone's needs and had developed sufficiently to allow the working class to become politically organised. There's nothing utopian about suggesting that we could organise a better world now. The real dreamers are those who rather muddle along hoping that this or that reform will somehow make the profit-system behave humanely—something it has never done so far and never will. William Morris saw the dangers of treating the problems of capitalism separately by reforms and insisted on the need to work for a socialist society and nothing else. He argued that "it is essential that the ideal of the new society should always be kept before the eyes of the working classes, lest the continuity of the demands of the people should be broken, or lest they should be misdirected".