Every conception of Currency operates on a Command and Control (C2) Mechanism designed to coordinate a Unity of Command and a Unity of Effort. The Liberal Capitalist conception of Currency is “Kapital” and the “Incentive” as its C2 Mechanism, designed to issue orders with a Unity of Command called “Demand” and a Unity of Effort called “Supply.” The goal for Liberal Capitalists is to find an “Equilibrium” between Supply and Demand. It may seem like an unusual way of understanding finance and economics, but the very concept of Kapital in general relies on “Schuld” (Debt/Guilt) to justify its own existence. It matters very little if Kapital itself is backed by Gold and Silver, Debt, or Cryptocurrencies; the goal of Kapital Accumulation is to pay off the Schuld as part of the “Profit Motive.” Any and all means to wipe away the Schuld become permissible under Liberal Capitalism, up to and including all forms of illegality.
The Liberal Capitalists may deny this or never realize why the German word “Schuld” best describes Kapital, but their conception of Currency affects how everyone in any nation value their Work. People lose sight of why they are doing something and why they exist to begin with because so much of their time and effort is being spent on trying to pay off the Schuld and generate the greatest amount of Kapital with the most pleasure for the least amount of pain. We tend to see this behavior manifest itself in different variations. There are privatized labor unions going on strike to demand higher and higher wages to the detriment of other labor unions, privatized commercial firms driving other firms into inexistence, pensioners demanding larger sums in their pensions, governments levying higher and higher taxes, and corporate lobbyists and special interests subverting the political process for their own personal gain. Here, a very simplistic conception of human existence, “Homo Economicus,” exists in an ideological mold that everyone must conform to the detriment of all other cultural, faiths, ethnic, and national identities.
But these behaviors are not conducive to a healthy, prosperous, and orderly nation. Socialism does not arise from the belief that the working class should be paid more or that the state should control the means of production. The demand for economic freedom through Socialism consistently arises as the demand for a different conception of Work which is antithetical to Liberal Capitalist ideology. What Socialism advocates for is a different economic order, a different way of doing things, its interpretation affected by everyone constituting themselves as part of the nation-state. The “Socialism” of one country differs from the “Socialism” of a neighboring country and vice versa. Culture, tradition, faith, history, nationality, and other key sociological traits are what defines each Socialism in its attempts to implement an entirely distinct conception of Work.
No Socialism in actual practice is going to rely on Liberal Capitalist conceptions of Currency, C2 Mechanism, Unity of Command and Unity of Effort. Practical applications require their own version, and the Work-Standard is more than capable of achieving this. At its simplest form, the Work-Standard advocates for a different conception of Currency where Money (“Geld”) is pegged to Work (“Arbeit”) based on its Quality, Frequency and Sustainability. From a personal level, it matters greatly as to whether an Individual is engaging in any form of Arbeit because it is a part of their Vocation in Life or whether they are involved because of any reward that comes afterward. Arbeit is more focused on the here and now, whether an Individual pursues their Vocation with an inward freedom and inward security (as opposed to the outward freedom and outward security provided by Liberal Capitalism), tempered by Legal Duties and Constitutional Obligations to the whole nation. The Individual will receive the information and resources from the Council State to pursue their Vocation in the determination to create Arbeit and let the Central Bank convert it into Geld as payments for their economic contributions to the Socialist Nation.
If the Socialist conception of Currency–Sociable Currency–is “Actual Geld” backed by “Actual Arbeit,” the C2 Mechanism is an “Intent.” The concept of Incentives shall be replaced entirely by this most appropriate alternative. Nobody does anything without an Intent, a coherent purpose in Life. This notion from Liberal Capitalism that people are perfectly rational beings with access to flawless information and calculating everything on the basis of pain and pleasure is ridiculously absurd. People do their work as part of a higher sense of purpose that no government could ever provide. They are informed of this purpose by their national culture and personal upbringing, by their own talents, by God, by history itself or a determination to serve the nation.
Conversely, people are not always going to be rational or reasonable, just as how there have also been people who remain misunderstood, unknown and alienated by Liberal Capitalist ideology. To Liberal Capitalists, they defy Reason itself because what is deemed irrational to them is comprehended in quasi-scientific notions. A true Artistic Socialism, as opposed to Scientific Socialism, resembles an Artform as opposed to a Science. Only from the a priori position of Socialism being an Artform can anyone argue that there is no one way of implementing Socialism; Everyone has their own conception of economic freedom, just as they have their own Socialism.
Understanding all Socialisms on their own has its unique benefits. One can be more sincere and direct in their discussions of any Socialism with an authentic sense of constructive criticism. One can freely speak their minds about why they exist as they are, deciding for themselves what their Socialism can learn from other Socialisms from within its own National Essence. This sort of thinking does not exist under Liberal Capitalism because its adherents emphasize the a priori argument that no Individual is inwardly free and inwardly secure. Its adherents claim their ideology is binding on all of humanity, refusing to acknowledge the multiplicities of the different ways of life on Earth. Never will they recognize the true dignity of Actual Arbeit.
That is where the concept of Intents become applicable to the Work-Standard. Any Currency pegged to the Work-Standard will now require economic life to be defined by a higher sense of purpose and meaning that cannot be found by simply getting rich and not contributing any more Actual Arbeit by some superfluous pursuit of an “Early Retirement” or a senseless preparation for one’s “Retirement” later on in Life. People need to find a purpose in their own personal lives, which is something no government and no piece of legislation will ever provide. The purpose of Socialism bestowing inward freedom and inward security is to provide everyone with the means to decide for themselves how they wish to live in the Socialist Nation with the National Essence as their touchstone. What their government can do, besides allowing everyone to participate in the means of production, is to lay out the Constitutional Intents informing everyone of why they are free and why they are called to serve others under the rule of law. The sooner one adopts this sort of reasoning, the more sensible the Work-Standard becomes as a viable alternative to the Post-Bretton Woods Debt-Standard.
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