Harmonious Economics or The New World Order. Vladimir Emelyanovich Chabanov
both its tangible and intangible contents) for an average worker.
Moreover, further we will provide a description of the method of calculating the social labour intensity of commodities (SLIC) to assess its value and dynamics, which can be implemented at any enterprise separately (Subsection 3.1.2). This value is directly related to SLP, as any decrease in the SLP, all other conditions being equal, leads to an automatic SLIC increase, and vice versa. This allows stimulating the dynamics of production development, as well as determining the factors that condition it.
The unit of time for which SLP is calculated may be equal to one hour, one year or the average life expectancy. Thus, one can consider hourly, daily, monthly, yearly or secular SLP. Each of the values provides different information. For instance, secular SLP allows assessing the total quantity of commodities that a person produces in a lifetime. Besides, it helps establish the impact on SLP of such factors as average life expectancy, quality of nutrition, daily schedule, and balance between labour and rest. It also depends on the length of work leaves, the functioning of sports, healthcare and wellness facilities, ecological situation, etc.
Yearly SLP may be used to assess the efficiency of social labour differentiation and cooperation, the impact of various reforms and reorganisations. Hourly SLP is more flexible and dynamic. It helps to study the influence of various small and big organisational measures, psychological factors, technical equipment and many other factors in the labour efficiency at enterprises. None of these indicators contradict the other, on the contrary, they form a single information data base useful for optimisation of social labour in general, as well as of specific parts of this system. Besides, they make it possible to assess the actual efficiency of economic and other structures.
SLP is significantly different from the industrial and other specific criteria of labour productivity which are used nowadays. Indeed, as the production of any item or service engages the entire society, and not just a part of it, specific criteria will not be able to correctly assess the real labour productivity of the society as a whole. Moreover, they often do more to conceal it, for many of these criteria are interdependent. For instance, income increase in financial or trade sector often entails suppression of other sectors of economics, etc.
It is obvious that a single social criterion is free of this drawback. This means that all kinds of technological and organisational novelties, property limits, and new state institutes are useful provided that they contribute to SLP growth. By consequence, economy has no place for selfishness, politics, ideological speculations, clan struggle, etc.
Thus, SLP is not solely an economic, but also partially a philosophic criterion related to the vision of the world. If any type of activity does not increase SLP, then it should be diminished or altogether abolished. If the social value of any type of labour is low, the share of income it produces should be limited. If the salaries of scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, and the wages of workers are lower than the average in the country, this means their labour is in low demand. But when the income of government officials, businessmen, finance experts, tradesmen and criminals are much higher than the average, then these activities conform more with the nature of the existing state. Now is it realistic to expect, in such conditions, that the real production would be restored, the country – renewed and start developing to pass to the industrialized category?
The notion of SLP is based on the assumption that all saving of social labour is useful, and vice versa. Therefore, this indicator may be used to optimize the work of various services, to assess the efficiency of administration, the reliability of public transport; to adjust the salaries of various categories of workers, etc. For example, is a train carrying 1,000 passengers is half an hour late, is there an excuse for the circumstances that caused the loss of 500 pers./h of social labour? If production increase does not entail SLP increase, then production rates should be slowed down. If reorganisations, measures and reforms implemented cause SLP to drop, they are, without any doubt, too aggressive. If a nanny at the kindergarten helps save the efforts of dozens of parents, this is her actual labour productivity. And this has nothing to do with the work force cost, as it does now.
Another example: today advertising consumes the time of millions of people, as well as enormous material resources amounts, while it generates profit for an insignificant number of businessmen who want to sell their products, often foreign-made. Similarly, traffic congestions take huge time, increase the fuel consumption, and accelerate destruction of roads and vehicles. Besides, they increase the demand for these commodities, and by consequence – the income of certain individuals and the tax revenue for the budget. Products of low-quality foods and counterfeit drugs kills people, but then it also helps boost the income of their producers. Consumption of tobacco and alcohol ruins the nations’ health; however, it increases the profitability of their manufacturers, excise tax revenues for the state, etc.
1.3.3. SLP suppressing factors
The accelerating decrease in the social labour productivity in most countries as “world civilisation’ develops and establishes there, despite considerable scientific and technological progress, indicates the existence of some underlying phenomena that actively counteract progress. What are they?
In order to understand this situation, let us turn back to the labour differentiation scheme presented in Figure 1. Why does the performance of this industrial relations mechanism continuously get worse? What prevents this system from being properly efficient? What are the main drawbacks of the current economic doctrine, why is its ideology deformed?
This issue is difficult to understand not only because of its multifaceted nature, but also because its causes and consequences have intertwined into such a tight knot that untying it turns out extremely complicated. Moreover, should we even try to do that? To find out, let us start by drawing a simple list of the key SLP suppressing factors.
As it has already been mentioned, none of the structures present in Figure 1 is self-sufficient, and only united they have force. Nevertheless, the current economic model does not provide a clear order for distribution of jointly produced income, which further complicates the work of the forces that bind these structures together. Administration has failed to manage it, and the present-day monetary mechanism aimed at executing this function works poorly in the current conditions (for more details, see Subsection 3.2.2).
For this reason, each of the economic sectors pursues its proper interests, and does not care for the common benefit. This breaks the coordination of actions, and constructive cooperation is replaced by destructive competition. The desire to appropriate the bigger part of public income overpowers the task of increasing its aggregate value. Modern experts in the sphere of finance, energetics, trade, housing and utilities and others, with their absolute lack of restraint, are a vivid example of this tendency. For instance, the share of energy-related expenditures in the Russian enterprises price structure has already exceeded 50%, which does not correspond to the number of work force employed in the sector and, therefore, undermines the competitiveness of national economics.
If across the world the correlation between the income of producers and trade in the prices of items is about 70% to 30%, in Russia this proportion has literally been reversed. The profit from management, trade, and credit and financial services has become incommensurably higher than the income of science, education, awareness, light industries, or healthcare. It would be erroneous to assume that the most prosperous economic sectors employ the most intelligent, hardworking, experienced and qualified people. Besides, it seems too naïve to believe that such system better stimulates real values production.
Furthermore, the result of such confrontation is easily predictable. Russian fable writer I. A. Krylov described this situation in his fable: “A Crawfish, Swan and Pike combining | resolved to draw a cart and freight… However much they work, the load to stir refuses. | It seems to be perverse with selfwill vast endowed; | The swan makes upward