In the Socialist nation itself, the Totality controls the twin factors in the means of production, Arbeit and Geld. Everyone is expected to live within their own means of production, regardless if there is any international trade or not. Even so, there will always be moments where the State will be conducting trade with other nations that may not necessarily have Currencies pegged to the Work-Standard or are cordial Socialist nations for that matter. In a regular Real Trade Agreement conducted between two Currencies under the Work-Standard, one nation will have the Arbeit and the other nation will have the Geld. Just as how the Totality contribute Arbeit to their own State and receive Geld, something similar will be applicable to different States.
Let’s begin with two Socialist States with Currencies pegged to the Work-Standard, “State A” and “State B.” State A can give either Arbeit or Geld to State B, State B sending either Arbeit or Geld to State A. State A may theoretically give State B both Arbeit and Geld if State B is able to return the favor by sending both Arbeit and Geld to State A. Neither State is going to give the other State anything without expecting something back in return, just as their Totalities expect to be given Geld for their Arbeit under the Work-Standard. That is the Implicit Intent behind why the concept of a Real Trade Agreement (RTA) stressing the need for an exporter and an importer to maintain a Balance of Trades and Payments.
Certain accommodations may be made by the two States in their RTA in the context of “Economic Foreignization.” We can expect up to three different modes of Economic Foreignization within two different pivots of Real Trade: Bilateral and Multilateral.
Bilateral Real Trade
State A could allow State B to have one of its Enterprises establish a presence within the borders of State A. State A gets the Arbeit of that “foreign Enterprise” because it can be argued that most of the people working there are legal citizens of State A. State B, retaining ownership of that Enterprise, will be receiving the Geld.
Alternatively, if State A does not have anyone who can operate the “foreign Enterprise,” it is possible for State B to allow their own citizens to work abroad. State B gets the Arbeit as the owner of the “foreign Enterprise” and State A will be receiving the Geld.
If there are any foreigners from State B and any citizens in State A involved in the day-to-day affairs of said “foreign Enterprise,” States A and B will need to split the Arbeit and Geld. The amount varies and there plenty of possibilities where either State could gain a trade deficit or a trade surplus. Certain contexts may even require both States to receive 50% of the Arbeit and Geld each, State A receiving 75% Arbeit and 25% Geld and State B receiving 25% Arbeit and 75% Geld, or vice versa for the reverse. It is up to those two States to decide for themselves how they wish to proceed to ensure a proper Balance of Trades and Payments.
Here, we encounter once again the Political Organization Problem. How does one reconcile the fact that not all Socialisms are the same? How shall our economic planners, accountants, inspectors, administrators, bureaucrats and civil servants conduct themselves if they decide to pursue their Vocations in other countries? Can we expect MTEP (Mission-Type Economic Planning) to continue in Socialist countries with some form of STEP (Soviet-Type Economic Planning) like the PRC, Vietnam, DPRK, or Cuba? How do we expect our version of Economic Planning to operate within countries employing limited degrees of Economic Planning such as Japan, Taiwan, France, Venezuela or Russia? What about countries that do not employ any Economic Planning like the EU/NATO member-states and a United States under Jeffersonianism?
Our economic planners and their retinue of accountants and inspectors, particularly those pursuing their Vocations abroad, will be expected by our State to demonstrate fluency in the language and familiarity with the culture of their destination. They may like, dislike or be indifferent to the People’s Party (or the Ruling Party if the regime is Liberal Capitalist) of the destination, but they need to be made aware that they are only in that country on behalf of the diplomatic consulate at our embassy over there, which is likely located somewhere in the foreign nation’s capital. As for the Intents of Command and Obedience, our State will only allow Enterprises with an Economic Organization Rank of “National-Socialized,” “State-Owned” or “State-Administrated.” A State-Administrated Enterprise from our nation that works abroad is always under the direct command of our State, a State-Owned Enterprise under our State’s indirect command. We can expect most of our Enterprises working abroad to be National-Socialized Enterprises, which is under the command of the hosting State’s Intents of Command and Obedience. The NSE is more flexible in the international movements of Arbeit, Geld and Information than SOEs or SAEs. While NSEs are always be the last Enterprises to leave in the event of strained diplomatic relations, whatever economic organization that acted as their superior is likely to be an SAE or SOE.
Multilateral Real Trade
Multilateral Real Trade will only be made available if there are at least three or more nation-states with Currencies pegged to the Work-Standard. Here, State A and State B are joined by States C, D and E under the terms of a revised Real Trade Agreement. The five States agreed to allow fifteen NSEs, SOEs and SAEs to operate in the other four States. The basic premise from earlier still applies, except now they include concepts drawn from SMP Compendium entry “The State and the Socialist Conception of Property.”
Any NSE, SOE or SAE sent by State A to States B, C, D and/or E will be sending Geld back to State A. States B, C, D and E keep the Arbeit from the Enterprises of State A because everyday operations are being done by the citizens of those four nations.
Alternatively, Alternatively, if neither of the other States does not have anyone who can operate the fifteen Enterprises, it is possible for State A to allow their own citizens to work abroad. State A gets the Arbeit as the owner of those Enterprises and State A will be receiving the Geld.
If the fifteen Enterprises from State A has its own citizens working alongside the citizens of States B, C, D and E, State A has two options. Either State A arranges with each of the other four States on separate rates based on a per-State basis or sets the rate with the other four States together before their Heads of State sign the RTA. This phenomenon is called a “Solidarity Preference,” and we can expect the rates of Arbeit and Geld to not be uniform. The challenge here is more different than simple Bilateral Real Trade between States A and B, but the general premise is still the same regardless: all five States must decide for themselves and their Totalities on the international agreements that they are bound to uphold under international law.
On Formation of Customs Unions, Political Unions, Economic and Monetary Unions
If there are already five different Currencies pegged to the Work-Standard, certain accommodations may be made for Customs Unions, Political Unions, Economic and Monetary Unions. Anything short of literal annexation through economic means is acceptable and shall be left to the discretions of the involved States. States A, B, C, D and E could be scattered around the world or are neighbors situated on the same continent. Their Heads of State may decide for themselves that their Totalities are best-served in a Customs Union.
The goal of a Customs Union is to enhance the Quality of Arbeit and the Quality of Geld for both exporters and importers and achieve the Balance of Trades and Payments at the same time. For Quality of Arbeit, a Custom Union affects the Mechanization Rate and the Force Multipliers in the contributions of Arbeit by allowing preferential prices for automated machinery and computer software as well as easier ways for scientists, engineers, programmers, scholars and artists to work together. If they and countless other professions are working together, and provided their States are able to maintain the Balance of Trades and Payments, we can expect enhancements to the Quality of Geld’s Economic Socialization and Solidarity Rate. The effects of a Solidarity Preference can then be minimizing, allowing for better coordination between different Enterprises and economic planners, accountants, inspectors, bureaucrats, administrators and civil servants.
A Customs Union has the potential for Prices of goods and services among its member-states to be favorable to exports and imports. They can also form the nucleus around a military alliance that can forge a Political Union. Here, the Heads of State from States A, B, C, D and E to lead the Political Union. They are the ones who will working together to coordinate the affairs of their Political Union while also respecting the national sovereignties of their States. The potential is there for a political-economic-military bloc going above and beyond whatever the CMEA/Warsaw Pact member-states were capable of achieving thanks to the essences of the Work-Standard.
If those Heads of State are ambitious enough, they can finally lay the groundwork for a world order without Liberal Capitalism. An Economic Union is formed if they are able to invite other Socialist nations to adopt a different form of Total Mobilization, introduce them to MTEP, State Commissariats, Kontore, the VCS Economy and its five different Enterprises, and the SSE. It would be best that the Economic Union is formed once there are anywhere between ten and thirty member-states. Once the Work-Standard has achieved at least thirty to sixty member-states, those same five States will be in the position to establish a Monetary Union. An entirely different world order in opposition to the Liberal Capitalists’ Liberal International Economic Order (LIEO) is now within reach, with Socialism on the rise outside of this world order.
The Monetary Union of States A through E will be where the Work-Standard, MTEP, VCS Economy and the SSE, the Kontore and State Commissariats, Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System, and so on will be present among a sizeable portion of the world. That is their chance to lay the groundwork for the proposed introduction of a different World Reserve Currency pegged to States A through E’s Currencies. By this point, States A through E are already economic powers and may even be among the ten largest economies on Earth. We will explore the details of this proposed World Reserve Currency in a later SMP Compendium entry.
On the Propagation of Information
Furthermore, advertising is like political propaganda when done incorrectly under the Work-Standard. The Liberal Capitalist way of creating an advertisement is to inform its observers about the existence of a product as a Commodity and persuade the observer on why they ought to buy it with Kapital. This sort of advertising is limited in Socialisms whose Currencies are unpegged to the Work-Standard, while the Socialisms with Currencies pegged to the Work-Standard having ‘banned’ advertisements. The Liberal Capitalists question the latter decision by insisting on how will people learn about the existences of certain products if advertisements do not exist. Where there is a Liberal Capitalist way to advertise propaganda for the Economic Calculation Problem, there is a Socialistic way to propagate advertisements for the Political Organization Problem.
When an American observes a McDonald’s advertisement, what are they expecting? They anticipate either a new food item for sale at a listed Price, a promotional deal for an existing one at a Comparative Advantage (Read: Dollar Menu), a limited-time event (Read: McDonald’s Monopoly) or a limited-time item as part of promoting media like a movie or a TV show (Read: a Szechuan sauce item for a Happy Meal in the late 1990s and again in the late 2010s to promote a TV show). When the advertisers miscommunicated the Intents of Arbeit by focusing on the Incentives of Kapital, McDonald’s had to give away millions of free Big Macs, French fries and Cokes as part of the 1984 Olympics. Therein lies the distinction between Liberal Capitalist advertising and Socialist advertising: if our investors at a Kontor decides to open a McDonald’s franchise, a distinct methodology of advertising will be arising within their economic activities.
How do they go about any McDonald’s advertisement? They recall the fact that the Work-Standard allows for a “Transvaluation of all Arbeit” derived from Martin Heidegger’s philosophy in Being and Time: Repurpose both the advertisement and the franchise according to their Reference and Relevance to the Socialist nation-state via the Work-Standard. There are several ways this can play out and each one has had an historical precedent in the international conduct of McDonald’s.
Reference: McDonald’s Corporation is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers, a Prussian-American food derived from the Frikadelle of the German-speaking world. Their “Fillet O’Fish” is a work of art from a Prussian-like challenge to determine whether American Roman Catholics would prefer it over its competition, the “Hula Burger.” International operations by the McDonald’s Corporation have had a long history of allowing the franchises of different countries to develop localized variations of their food items as a “Solidarity Preference” (like how the McRib pork sandwich is never eaten among Muslims for religious reasons or how the food items with beef are never eaten among Hindus as it is illegal in India for religious reasons). Examples include the “Big N’ Tasty” among the branches of the EU/NATO member-states and the “Kiwiburger” among the branches of New Zealand. Additionally, there are certain countries where food delivery is the preferred method over drive-through.
Relevance: There may be contexts where people may not have enough time to prepare their own meals before heading to the workspace. Some of us do not have any patience to be waiting in line at the cafeteria and others may have to work late at night when most of the local restaurants could be closed. There are also countries where a McDonald’s restaurant may feature a drive-through or food delivery options. Also, there can be a special downloadable app on the smartphone where “Work-Plans” are placed ahead of time and arrangements made for pickups or deliveries.
Repurpose: A creatively Socialistic advertisement features somebody interested in a place to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They are pressed for time, are confident enough to avoid being like Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me and would like their meals to be prepared ahead of time. He invests his Geld into a Work-Plan on a specific date, paying for both the food and the Service Fee from his local Kontor’s Office II, and sends it to a location of his choosing. That McDonald’s branch receives his Work-Plan and somebody will be there to ensure he picks up the breakfast on the way to the workspace, during his lunchbreak, and when he returns home. Any McDonald’s advertisement shown in the Socialist nation-state shall not be about any particular product or even the promotion of any form of media. Instead, focus more on the Quality of Arbeit itself and the Kontor floor traders and day traders at the restaurants themselves.
If the McDonald’s Corporation decides to establish a presence within the nation, ensure that they are coexisting in the state of Total Mobilization of Production for Dasein. If the Central Bank decides to raise the Mechanization Rate to offset any signs of Currency Depreciation, expect some or all local McDonald’s locations to begin employing aspects of automation technologies. The McDonald’s Corporation already has the technologies, expertise, experience, and logistics for local branches to facilitate it. What they are missing are the Work-Standard and its Mission-Type Economic Planning, the Intents of Command and Obedience, and a coordinated codetermination of economic, financial, political and legal powers in a Schwerpunkt (Focal Point) by the State, the VCS Economy, Kontore and State Commissariats. The Totality keeps the Arbeit–the most valuable in any Real Trade Agreement, because Offices I, II, III and VII shall oversee its whole area of operations, Office IV ensuring that a portion of the Geld goes straight to the McDonald’s Corporation vis-à-vis one of our NSBs (National-Socialized Banks). The local branches are organized as POEs (Public-Owned Enterprises) under the direct command of an NSE (National-Socialized Enterprises) accepting Arbeit and Geld from potential investors at the Kontore.
Remember, the extent to which the McDonald’s Corporation has any presence in the Socialist nation-state rests squarely on the State. The State itself will always be the final authority in deciding whether or not the McDonald’s Corporation is allowed to operate within the framework of a Real Trade Agreement with the United States. Meanwhile, the Totality must continue to remain faithful to who they are, always striving to uphold their higher sense of Authentic Dasein. It is important to be aware of this consideration because the number of McDonald’s locations throughout the Socialist nation-state will not be as many as a United States under Hamiltonian Federal Socialism with its US Dollar pegged to the Work-Standard. And when Hamiltonian Federal Socialism is governing the US, all of the basic elements of Real Trade are still applicable in a Socialist world order without Liberal Capitalism.
Categories: Compendium, Politics
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