A new society - Private property.
Time and Value.
Before we proceed further, we should discuss the issue of private property, the "sacred cow of the capitalist class", and the pillar on which Capitalism rests.
Here we will discuss the private property of the means of production, not our homes and other personal things that we may own.
To own the house or the flat in which we live does not make one a capitalist, we all must live somewhere and, besides, we should not have to pay through our noses for such a necessity of life: necessities should not be made objects of personal investment for personal profit.
We must make an important distinction between the property of the means of production which affect the whole of society, and the personal property of those commodities which make individual life comfortable.
The concept of "absolute individual private property" is particular mainly to the capitalist system. Capitalism could not exist without it.
The concept of property, land property in particular, evolved and changed with the evolution and changes of Human societies; at the beginning it did not even exist. At the beginning the use of the land belong to those who could defend it, and in essence it is the same today.
At the beginning the land was used in common by the primitive families and tribes. As the population increased and civilisation evolved, the concept of private property evolved too, but it was seldom absolute, and it was always ultimately dependent on the ability to defend it.
The primordial right to anything was the 'Right of Might’: behind all laws, customs and rights, including the right to property, is the capacity to enforce them, the willingness to accept them, and transient common convenience.
In Europe during the Middle Ages there was the land tenure of the Barbarian Nations; before the development of Capitalism, there was the feudal form of land tenure entrusted to the nobility by the King, but everybody had some chartered rights to the use and produce of the land it was the right to life. Eventually the nobility took possession and most of the peasants living on their lands were forced to leave.
With Capitalism, property had to become absolute: there would be no incentive to accumulate land and wealth if they could arbitrarily be taken away by force or by decree. Therefore, the capitalist concept of property had a beginning in our history; it is not the "eternal concept and the sacred cow" that we have been made to believe, but it has come about with Capitalism and with Capitalism it will go. The "absolute private property" of the capitalist is very expensive to society as a great part of private and public bureaucracy is continually employed in its maintenance and protection.
In a new society, therefore, we should distinguish between the main forms of property:
The inalienable ownership of our personal possessions related to our personal freedom and individuality,
The public ownership of the means of production that affects the whole of society and
The ownership of productive land.
We should consider the property of farming land separately from the rest of the means of production for two main reasons: one is that, because it concerns the growing of food produce, it is the most important issue to be resolved, from which the success or the failure of any society primarily depends; therefore, it is the key to a successful and peaceful transition.
The second reason is that it involves special people, those farmers who grew on the land for generations, love the land and make it productive.
In the developed industrial societies, the farmers are in a minority compared with the people that are working in the manufacturing and service industries, and who are mainly living in the large industrial cities. Yet, together with all the other activities associated with farming, they are the most important people in a society because they are closer than anybody else to the real source of life without which the cities, with all their industries could not exist. Their labour on the land produces the primary fuel for Human life and energy.
If a farmer can grow enough produce to feed and keep alive a number of families beside his own, he has multiplied his labour power the source of all wealth.
In figurative terms, of the people who are kept alive by the work of one farmer, one could become a builder, one a teacher, one a doctor, etc. This is the basic difference between a simple subsistence society and one that can grow and flourish.
This is only possible because the land and the work of Man have produced a surplus of food for the expansion of Human life and Human activity. It is the task of the society as a whole to promote the life of useful people, and to discourage the establishment of parasites.
At present, productive land is owned either by farmers living and working on it, or by absentee companies, agribusiness corporations and investors.
In the case of companies, it should not be difficult to change the nature of the land tenure from private ownership to public cooperatives. The managers and farm workers on the land, as long as their livelihood was not threatened and was improved, would probably prefer to be working for a society of which they are members, rather than for unknown shareholders and gamblers in the international stock market.
In the case of farmers working on their own farms, if they love the land, they should be the ones who husband it. If so they wish, they and their children should own it as long as they like to make it productive. To this effect they should be provided with the best help and facilities, and their status should be commensurate with their importance to the society. Their value and their remuneration could be determined by free discussions and contracts between the farmers, their associations and the rest of the society.
The main principles about the land are that farming is the most important industry in a society, that the land should be farmed by those people who love it and understand it, and that such farmers should be comfortable and secure for generations, or as long as they wanted to be productive farmers.
But, in the new society, there should not be absentee landlords, hoarding or speculation of land and no one should hold more land that one family or a cooperative of farmers are able to farm.
Regarding the support and recompense for each section of the society performing a task or function in the economy, there should be a list of priorities parallel to their importance in the functioning of the socio-economic organism. For example, if farming is considered to be first in importance, logically it should receive first consideration in the overall plan or guide of production and distribution of commodities, plant and equipment.
TIME.
Time (kronos - ? credits - ?) could be made the standard measure regarding the assessment of the value of labour, the products created by labour and consequently the cost of production and entitlements of every individual in the society
Today, with the speed and power of computing, the exact time taken to produce any commodity from conception through every stage of production and finally to distribution could be calculated; Therefore the total value of all production in the society would be equivalent to the sum of all the time spent in working by each individual in the society.
The time of one's life is equally precious for each individual person; therefore everybody would be entitled to a quantity of commodities whose time to produce is equivalent to the time a person has spent working. Some consideration should be given regarding the danger, difficulty and discomfort of some type of work, also to the ease, pleasantness of other type of work. The accrued value that a person has not spent should be accounted as Credit to that person.