The Internet: New Opportunity For Economic Justice

By Andrew J. Morris

More than 110 years ago, Hungarian born Austrian economist and
journalist Theodor Hertzka wrote a utopian novel that pictured a
world where economic justice prevailed, not through idealistic
classic socialism, nor demotivating communism, but through a
democratic system with socialist elements. Several groups of
individuals found the concept so inspiring that they actually
established communities based on the principals outlined in the
book, Freeland: A Social Anticipation.

Those communities failed -- but was it the economic theory that
did not work, or just that it was impractical on a small scale?
Most of the problems actually stemmed from power struggles for
leadership. Had the communities been large enough, with a larger
pool of competent candidates to choose from, perhaps the ultimate
disaster could have been prevented.

There are several points in Hertzka's writing that are downright
wrong, but they concern social issues, not economic ones. He
assumed that people would work in their own best interest, which
is not always the case. He had the usual bias of the day that
Western Civilization was the apex of human development, and that
others were uncivilized. And his views on women fit nicely with
Victorian sensibilities, but would hardly pass muster nowadays.

Those problems aside, the economic theory itself is intriguing.
The main elements in his design call for the society to own the
means of production, and to make those freely available to all
who would use them effectively. Capital is provided by the
society too, without interest. The cost of capital and means of
production must be repaid to the society, but there are no
interest charges, and repayment is automatically deducted from
profits.

Work is organized by Associations, and any member of the society
may join any Association or Associations they want, ensuring easy
mobility of labor. All Associations publish their earnings and
profits, so the most profitable attract the most workers in a
self-regulating feedback loop. The Associations are lead by
temporarily appointed managers who are elected from amongst the
workers and serve limited terms. Each worker receives a share of
the profits, in proportion to that worker's contribution to the
work of producing the commodities and services that are sold.

The consequences of this system were nothing short of miraculous
in the novel, but how might they do in real life? With the advent
of the Internet, we now have an opportunity to test this concept.
The communication of both ideas and the results of such efforts
can be entirely automated. Monetary transactions too may be
calculated and accounted for without any onerous effort beyond
the initial writing of a computer program to handle the details.

Of course it would be impossible today to afford land and
infrastructure to create a 'Freeland' in the real world, but we
can produce a cyber-community. Some minor modifications of the
scheme are needed to avoid fraud, and it is necessary that such a
cyber society produce primarily cyber goods (such as websites,
digital products, and business services like translations,
writing, editing, etc.) -- but there is a huge and growing demand
for digital goods and services today.

If you would like more information on this proposed utopian cyber
society, see FreeMeans at http://www.freemeans.org/

You will also find there the complete text of Freeland by Theodor
Hertzka, and other utopian writing.

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The author, Andrew J. Morris, writes and hosts
several websites, including QAnswered at
http://www.qanswered.com/ where you can get all
your questions answered!
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