The Workweek

The average workweek in the Socialist Nation under the Work-Standard is intended to achieve and maintain a regular median of forty (40) hours for most Vocations. Most Vocations spend eight (8) hours per day across five of the seven days that comprise the workweek. It is possible for somebody to be working on weekdays and weekends as part of the forty hour work-week. They may have their Sundays and Mondays off, but they are still interacting with their Vocations each week for at least 40 hours. 

The minimum number of hours that the Council State will allow is thirty-two (32) hours, where the Totality spends four of the seven days of the workweek at their Vocations. The maximum number of hours allowed for the work-week in peacetime conditions is fifty-six (56) hours, where everyone spends eight hours interacting with their Vocation on all seven days of the week. In wartime conditions, the Council State reserves the authority to immediately implement a fifty-six hour workweek in order to coordinate the Socialist Nation’s war effort.

Anyone who has a workweek shorter than thirty-two (32) hours must receive a Direct Order from their physicians or the courts. Only then can they be exempted. Conversely, anyone who has a workweek longer than 56 hours is deemed as essential personnel committed to specific Professions. The nature of those professions demands the need for longer working hours, and it is to be expected by anyone who intends to pursue them as early as their teenage years back in the SSE. The professions in question will include, but may not always be limited to:

• Medical Professions
• Educational Professions
• Religious Professions
• Military and Intelligence Professions
• Emergency Service Professions   
• Bankers and Investors
• Accountants, Economic Planners and Central Planners
• Inspectors, State Commissars, and Superintendents
• Government Professions
• Legal Professions

Each of those Professions are related to some aspect of the Central Government, namely the Council State and the Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System. It is normal to expect somebody from one of those Professions to be working longer than 56 hours under certain conditions. This is especially the case during wartime, where the Socialist Nation must be capable of achieving full combat readiness in very short order before proceeding to engage the enemy. 

No matter how long the workweek will be, the Central Bank will always have the same workweek as the rest of the Totality. In this case, the Central Bank begins its workweek on Mondays and finishes it on Fridays. The Intent of this is to provide a window of opportunity for the VCS Economy, the SSE, Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System, the Kontore and State Commissariats, and the Council State to contribute Arbeit and Geld to the Life-Energy Reserve.  

On its WSA, the Central Bank determines the Final TPP Value and sets the Actual RPF Value on Saturday. The Central Bank acquires the Final TPP Value by taking the sum totals of the TPP Account, LER Account and SI-EF Account for today and the previous six days. It forwards that information to the Head of State, Head of Government, State Council, Central Planners and Superintendents by midnight on the following Sunday. The rest of the Socialist Nation learns of the Central Bank’s decisions when morning comes, coinciding with the Council State’s distribution of weekly Paygrades to each household.   

At the end of every workweek, any Arbeit and Geld inside the Life-Energy Reserve is immediately turned into State Revenues by the Central Bank. The Council State then spends the State Revenues on all of its State Expenses. Anything left over is allocated to the State Budget, which the Council State is thereby allowed to reallocate elsewhere. If State Expenses surpass State Revenues, any Actual Geld in the Council State’s State Budget will automatically be deducted. If the State Budget is empty, then the Council State is in a fiscal deficit and will begin accumulating Sovereign Schuld until it can regain a balanced budget. Using Command-Obedience Account Bookkeeping, we can format that operational procedure as the following:

In the past two workweeks, the Council State had a State Budget 800 GDM. Its overall State Expenses were 200 GDM. The last workweek saw the Council State achieving State Revenues of 400 GDM, resulting in a budgetary surplus of 200 GDM. The Council State ended the last workweek with a State Budget of 1,000 GDM.

On this workweek, the Council State succeeded in keeping its State Expenses at 200 GDM. It also increased its State Revenues to 600 GDM, yielding a budgetary surplus of 400 GDM. The Council State will be ending the workweek with 1,400 GDM left over for the next workweek. That is 1,400 GDM that the Council State could spend now or save for the future.

Allocating the State Budget

The new workweek begins on Sunday morning, the day after the Central Bank had finished determining the Final TPP Value and settled on the Actual RPF Value. While the Totality is receiving their Paygrades and proceeding to begin the new workweek, the Council of Ministers in charge of the Council State’s Ministries send their weekly reports to the State President, State Chancellor, and State Council. Each Minister provides an overview and summary of their activities, including a rundown of their organizational finances.

Any Actual Geld needed by the Ministries and their Departments and Offices are allocated to them. This will coincide with the allocations of any additional Actual Geld required by the SSE, VCS Economy, Reciprocal-Reserve Banking System, and National Intranet, all of whose operating and upkeep costs have already been paid for by the Council State as part of its State Expenses. When the Council State does decide to allocate additional Actual Geld to an Enterprise in the VSC Economy, for instance, the State President, State Chancellor, State Council, Central Planners and Superintendents will be presented with a simple table related to that Enterprise. Using Command-Obedience Account Bookkeeping, we can format that table as the following:

On the Obedience-side are the Weekly Allocations and Budgetary Proposals, with Required Minimums and Weekly Balances on the Command-side. The Weekly Allocations indicate how much Actual Geld is being allocated from the State Budget to an Enterprise for its economic activities and the Paygrades of its personnel. It should always be identical to the Required Minimum on the Command-side. Both the Weekly Allocation and the Required Minimum are applicable to the current workweek.

  The Budgetary Proposal determines how much the Council State intends to allocate to the affected Enterprise. Any chances to the budget of the affected of the Enterprise is recorded under the Weekly Balance on the Command-side. Unlike the Weekly Allocation and Required Minimum, the Budgetary Proposal and Weekly Balance will the finances of the affected Enterprise in the next workweek, when the next round of allocations is scheduled to occur. 

To demonstrate Command-Obedience Account Bookkeeping in the allocations of the State Budget, recall that the Council State the Council State currently has 1,400 GDM. There is an Enterprise in the VCS Economy that receives a Weekly Allocation of 600 GDM and a new Required Minimum of 800 GDM. The Council State must allocate 200 GDM to that Enterprise in order for it to break even within its own finances. The Council State is now left with 1,200 GDM.

Meanwhile, suppose there is another Enterprise, a State Enterprise, within the VCS Economy that has a Weekly Allocation of 1,000 GDM and a new Required Minimum of 600 GDM. That State Enterprise has been able to keep its costs down and gained more Actual Geld in transactional sales at the Tournament. The Council State can decide to lower its Weekly Allocation for next week with a Budgetary Proposal of 600 GDM, the Weekly Balance reflecting a 400 GDM decrease. 

Categories: Compendium

Tags: Digital Realm, Economics, Finance, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Socialist Finance, Third Place, Work-Standard, Work-Standard Accounting Practices