As stated previously in the preceding Entries, the digital realm is capable of yielding, on the one hand, the World Wide Web (WWW) and an opposing series of National Intranets connected to each other via an International Internet. To transplant the State of Total Mobilization and its Modes of Production into the digital realm entails the digitalization of economic life, where existing conceptions of economic governance must adapt to its developments or be replaced altogether by more appropriate equivalents. When conceptualized within the alternate world order of Scenario 1999, we encounter the socioeconomic and technological issues that will become relevant in at least the next three, four or decades, and whose solutions must require political solutions from the Council Democratic process:

1. Does the National Intranet enable everyone to become Economic Planners? How would this trend affect the organizational practices of the existing Economic Planners and Central Planners?
2. Will the introduction of Automation eliminate certain Professions creating Arbeit and Geld?
3. Would the introduction of “disruptive technologies” affect the production processes of entire Enterprises and Industries?
4. Can existing National Educational Systems accommodate the growing interests in the digital realm among the Student Body and their Student Government?
5. Is it too much of a stretch to envisage Virtual Economies operating as part of the Digital Economy that encompasses the National Intranet?

Some of these questions have been around since the 1970s, set into motion by historical precedents related to the growing role of Technology throughout the early 20^th century. In fact, they emerged in Professions outside the National Educational System, the Manufacturing and Services Sector, and the digital realm.

Automation in Scenario 1999: Historical Background

The rise of mechanized agriculture, aside from increasing crop yields and overall food production, meant that less people were needed to create Arbeit and Geld in the Agricultural Industry. Under the Work-Standard, Central Banks were forced to raise the Mechanization Rates (MRs) of their nations’ Sociable Currencies. The raising of the Mechanization Rate, despite increasing the TPPs (Total Productive Potentials), resulted in the shrinking of Professions within the Agricultural Industry. Smaller Professions also meant fewer Intents for anyone to pursue Vocations within their related Enterprises and Industries.

More recently, the rise of Automation in the Manufacturing Sector by the 1970s forced Central Banks to raise their Mechanization Rates again by a significant degree. The repertoire of mass production where battalions of Civil Servants built things on assembly lines could not be sustained. Even with all of the Equipmentalities provided by the Natural Sectors of the world, the production processes of the world’s Manufacturing Sectors were becoming Unsustainable. Barring the usual issues of environmental degradation and resource depletion, the continued mass production of finished goods led to their Prices to fall. Although Prices fell, the Quality of Arbeit (QW) paled in comparison. To ensure that Prices would stay in lockstep with QW and thus the Quality of Geld (QM), entire production processes were automated, thereby forcing the Central Banks to significantly raise MR.

The consequence of Automation in the Manufacturing Sector caused their own Professions to shrink. As the introduction of Automation led to fewer Intents for people to pursue their Vocations there, the governments of the five great powers shifted their attention to the Services Sector. The Services Sectors of the world, despite sharing comparable levels of size and composition to those of the Natural Sector and Manufacturing Sector, were not immune to the triumphant march of Automation either. Their introduction of Automation also began in the 1970s, eventually reaching critical mass sometime around the 1980s and early 1990s. The Central Banks gradually raised their Mechanization Rates again during those years because there were still technical limitations behind automating the Services Sector.

The world’s National Educational Systems, responding to these developments, saw the American, Germanic, Soviet, Chinese, and Japanese SSEs expand their “Student Tournaments” and “Student Enterprises” to include “Digital Enterprises.” Since all of their Student Governments were supportive of National Intranets for a variety of different Intents, the rest of the world order had to follow suit.   

When the Work-Standard was originally adopted worldwide between the two World Wars, economic governance of all national economies was split into “State Enterprises,” “Social Enterprises,” and “Foreign Enterprises.” Most economic activities were conducted by a Council State or Corporate State and its Nation’s Totality or Business Community and Organized Labor. The Tournament was the national institution facilitating interfaces between both groups. The presences of Foreign Enterprises were allowed under Real Trade Agreements (RTAs). The growing influence of the National Educational System and recognition of Student Rights throughout the early 20^th century led to the formalization of Student Economies by the mid-20^th century.

The relationship between States and Totalities under the Tournament were replicated in the economic activities of Student Bodies at the secondary and tertiary educational levels, where the Student Tournament fulfilled the purpose of supplementing classroom instruction with hands-on training. The Intent was to prepare Students for their postgraduation futures and to give them the necessary knowledge, skills, and character to participate in the State of Total Mobilization as individual Selves, as members of their Totality and State. To this end, State and Social Enterprises were transferred to the emerging Student Tournament for educational purposes. In addition to providing them with Geld to begin their futures, their hands-on training among the Student Enterprises of the Student Tournament also paid for all of their educational costs, rendering “Student Loans” and “Internships” impractical and redundant.

Automating the SSE: Mass Youth Unemployment and Underemployment?

With the rise of National Intranets and an International Internet by the 1990s, the Tournaments of the VCS Economies have had to accommodate the Student Tournament and the fledgling “Digital Tournament.” Students in most SSEs, prior to prior, had four options upon graduating from secondary school. From order of easiest to hardest to achieve, those are: Work-Conscription or Military Conscription; participate in the workforce in the Tournament; volunteer for the government bureaucracies of the State’s Ministries, Departments, and Offices or join the Military-Industrial Complex; continue one’s education at the tertiary educational level and pursue Student Government positions in hopes of attaining comparable ones within the State. The Digital Tournament and its Digital Enterprises, if it is not properly integrated into the Student Tournament and the VCS Economy’s Tournament, threatens to upend all of this.  

Of those four options, which one would the Student Bodies of the SSEs be most interested in pursuing? Since the first option was always reserved for few who still unable to determine their Vocations, that leaves the other three options. However, the aforementioned Automation that has been occurring over the past two decades is slowly diminishing the viability of that option. Not everyone finds their true Vocations in the armed forces and government bureaucracies are strict when it comes to who they can recruit as Apprentices. These facts unfortunately leave the Student Body with the fourth option, as that is the one responsible for the growth of Digital Enterprises within the this new Digital Tournament.

Even in nations under the Work-Standard, is it necessary for everyone among the Student Body to be moving on to the tertiary educational level just to pursue a very limited number of Professions? Even if everyone graduates from the universities flawlessly with all of the required skillsets, is it possible to expect an overabundance of young people who, not only have the educational background for highly specialized Professions, but also lack the necessary experience?

With so many young people opting for a handful of Professions, there will be Enterprises and Industries, not to mention the State’s Ministries, Departments and Offices, unable to handle overabundance. There are too many Students for the State and Totality to accommodate. Even the Student Government will also be facing the same difficulties. The recruitment process becomes so strict that there is no way that anyone, no matter how qualified they may be, is going to attain their Vocations and the Meaningful Work that comes with it. Meanwhile, expect to encounter other Professions, Enterprises and Industries to be struggling to find personnel. This issue cannot be resolved by simply increasing everyone’s Paygrades. It is a dilemma driven by the growing influence of Technology and the challenge of accommodating it so as to mitigate its effects. Remember, the situation outlined in Scenario 1999 has been building up to that year over the course of decades, its consequences made more apparent throughout the early 21^st century.

This issue can be discerned from the fact that the National Intranet has the potential to allow everyone, including the Student Body, to become their own Economic Planners. But why would the democratization of the Economic Planner Profession lead to the fall of its position in the Social Ranking System? Instead of the anxiety-inducing possibility of too many Students pursuing the same Profession, would such democratization lead to the Totality becoming more proficient at carrying out MTEP (Mission-Type Economic Planning)? Also, would it be too unusual to expect the roles of the Central Planners, the Economic Planners’ superiors, to change from government bureaucrat to that of an “economic magistrate?” Would the roles of existing Economic Planners change to something resembling how they were depicted in the last three Treatises, which is to say someone responsible for relaying the contributions of Arbeit and Geld to the Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System instead of someone who dictates from the top-down how much Arbeit is to be contributed from producing this amount of goods and services for this amount Zeit?

Proposed Role of Digital Enterprises on the National Intranet

As stated earlier the Tournament within the VCS Economy operates as a national institution facilitating economic activities between State Enterprises and Social Enterprises. Back in The Work-Standard (2^nd Ed.), The Third Place (1^st Ed.), and Work-Standard Accounting Practices (1^st Ed.), this relationship was meant to be embodied by the “National-Socialized Enterprise (NSE),” where the Arbeit and Geld created by a given Enterprise originates from both State and Totality. The VCS Economy’s Tournament and the SSE’s Tournament are meant to work together, but the rise of a Digital Tournament on the National Intranet should pose implications for their relationship going forward into the 21^st century.

One possible proposal, as described elsewhere in The Third Place (1^st Ed.), is for the Digital Tournament to function as an intermediate between the VCS Economy’s Tournament and the SSE’s Student Tournament. Since most State, Social and Student Enterprises have much of their economic activities occurring offline, the Digital Enterprises of the Digital Tournament on the National Intranet should facilitate interfaces between the Council State, the VCS Economy and the SSE. There are Digital Enterprises with Productive Properties creating Digital Arbeit and Digital Geld with advanced machinery running on the latest computer hardware and software applications.

They will support, rather than diminish, the importance of the Natural, Manufacturing and Service Sectors by enabling them to harness the economic firepower of the National Intranet. They enable the Student Tournament to enhance its overall capabilities by allowing the Student Body and Student Government to create newfound sources of Arbeit and Geld. While certain Professions, Enterprises, and Industries cease to exist among the Domains of the Work-World, newer ones must replace them. Technology should allow the State and Totality to realize other ways of creating Arbeit and Geld instead of eliminating existing ones.

Can such a feat be accomplished under the Work-Standard? Longstanding arguments from The Third Place (1^st Ed.) have suggested as much.    

Categories: Digital Realm

Tags: Accounting, Digital Realm, Economics, Finance, National Intranet, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Scenario 1999, Socialist Finance, Third Place, Work-Standard, Work-Standard Accounting Practices, World Wide Web