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i think that a true socialist government involves a three-way party-state-union framework: the party leads the state through organic centralism and multi-party democracy (i call a multi-party socialist democracy 'proletarian liberalism', rather than centre-right bourgeois liberalism); the state controls and coordinates (led by the workers and farmers themselves - a dictatorship of the proletariat) with a coalition of political parties in the government (the vanguard socialist party is the lead party, the big cheese); the union handles economics and such (a planned market economy is a true socialist economy) in a 'council of the economy', led by a national trade union federation.
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all political parties should be put in the care of the proletariat, rather than the oligarchs (or the people who enable the oligarchs. the general secretary of the vanguard party is the highest-ranking role, but the president and premier are the real leaders. the policies were enforced to prevent authoritarian stuff.
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in addition, private property exists alongside public and collective property; competition exists as it helps drive innovation; strict antitrust and antimonopoly laws were enforced; all corporations get split and collectivized by the workers. landowners get stripped of their landowner role, so the tenants get to be their own landowners, and they pay the taxes to the land and other stuff (taxation is NOT theft in any way, shape and form). property (whether private or public or collectivized) becomes regulated to avoid inequalities and such
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wealth is redistributed among everyone, and everyone is paid fairly - everyone gets a dividend of $1000 per month (financed through public banking run by the government). labor value is measured through an accounting system. the government controls how much money people spend - if they wanna exchange currency for goods and services without getting the guilt of being poorer, they can use labor vouchers. ethical consumption is allowed under market socialism. private, public and collective ownership co-exist peacefully (but private companies are regulated).
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rich people are taxed, and so does churches. food stamps (and snap benefits), bridge cards and welfare are important.
what do you think?
edit: listen the point is that i support full-fledged market socialism within a government that had three-way power between the parties, the state and the union. seriously!
Market socialism is only a stop-gap measure on the way towards a communized system, not a whole system in of itself.
Even here you are looking at running both a currency and labor voucher in some kind of dual system, which is unsustainable, because those who can convert labor vouchers into currency will be able to accrue interest and gain influence over those who have to spend labor vouchers on necessities. Unless you are running some sort of complex banking and centralized market where certain items can only be exchanged for labour vouchers or currency, depending. If a value game can be run, someone will run it. Doesn't mean that it isn't worth trying, but making it more complex just makes the game easier to run. Why not just abolish currency, only use labor vouchers? It is much simpler, especially in an era of computerized inventory.
As others have said, these kinds of systems tend to be developed ad hoc. It is utopian to pretend otherwise.
I mean, based off of reading this, you aren't really into socialism/communism, as the goals of the movement is ultimately the emancipation of the working class and total abolition of the state (legalized violence). For example, the argument between communists and anarchists one of the required steps in that process, not over what an 'ideal government' is. That is fundamentally a liberal argument, that an adequately planned state with the correct values will become the end of history. The communist does not view it that way. We once existed in a time without states, with industrial machinery and organization, we could easily exist as that again. More importantly, if we do not seek to exist as that again, that same industrial machinery will be used to enslave us and pit us in brutal competition both martial and commerical against each other.
i support workers and such. that said, do you think i should learn more about marxist theory, and are there any websites that are easy to understand?
Looks like Cowbee is already in this thread, but it hasn't been mentioned yet that their theory reading list is a good place to start.