Who owns the means of production in socialist economy?

Answer 1

Socialism (or Communism) would be a world-wide society in which the means of production are held in common. It would be charcterised by free access to all goods and services, and therefore by an absence of those defining featues of capitalist society, such as money, wages, and profits. Governments, as such, would not exist. Hence, production would be organised along democratic lines by genuine co-operatives, with everyone working within a given productive unit doing so on a purely voluntary basis, and having a say in it's operation. Wider society, again via democratic means, would exercise control over many of the parameters of production. For example, if a productive unit needed to expand, planning permission would probably need to be sought from the local community. Depending on the issue in question, resolution of differences might be constitutionally deemed to be appropriately undertaken at a particular level: World, regional or local (or something in between). Co-ordinating agencies, once again answerable to democratic bodies, would have an important liaison role; for example in organising the transfer of raw materials or finished products from one part of the world to another. Without the vagaries of a market system, however, it is likely that a lot of this would proceed on a fairly routine manner. Sophisticated stock control measures could automatically flag up shortages, and set in train processes to correct the deficit. Given that such wasteful features of capitalist production - such as the boom-slump cycle, built-in obsolescence, the vast amount of essentially unproductive economic activity (eg in the financial sector), the wastefulness in having numerous firms compete against each other etc - would not exist, the business of regulating production would be greatly simplified in the absence of the cash nexus. It goes without saying that Socialism (or Communism) have never been tried out anywhere. For more on this subject, go to http://andycox1953.webs.com/