A Simpler Way Of Doing Things. Abolish Money

We humans have always worked to support our life; worked to catch, grow and

produce our food, to make our shelter, our clothes and our tools, in general

to satisfy our needs. In groups tasks were shared and communities developed

by dividing labour cooperatively according to expertise and free will. All

worked both for themselves and the common good whist partaking of the

benefits accrued.

We still work to support our life but now money is a crucial factor, an

artificial intermediary between labour and the satisfaction of needs,

enabling labour to be exchanged indirectly for all manner of goods and

services. We now require money whether working within the community or

outside it. We do our work as farmer, builder, designer, cook or computer

operator using our particular skill, the difference now being we are

probably working away from our community and contributing little to it

except socially in our spare time and often it isn't the precise community

of our choice but the one we can afford in monetary terms. Moreover, we work

most of our life for an employer or series of employers who pay us more on

paper than our net salary or take home pay with the remainder being passed

on to various government agencies which, in turn, give us some back as

health care, unemployment pay and various benefits and pensions as time,

situation or entitlement dictate.

Without workers there is neither a product nor a service to sell and

therefore no money is generated for the system, no money is generated to

produce profit for the capitalists. Also, without worker input neither

national nor local governments have money of their own. They are financed

only by what they collect from employers in direct taxation and deductions

for employees gross pay and from indirect taxes. The tax on employers comes

from profit remaining after paying their bills and invoices for utilities,

goods, raw materials, other overheads and the wages bill, all of which

profit has been generated by the workforce. The deductions from employees'

pay also comes from the surplus generated by the workers but it forms a part

of the overall sum that the employer is prepared to pay for the labour

rendered.

Net pay is what is deemed sufficient and appropriate according to the type

of employment. The difference in amount between gross and net pay, that

which is utilised as deductions, (all of which is paid by the employer), is

a deal struck between government and employers with some negotiation by

trades unions on behalf of the employees. (The employee always striving for

a larger remuneration in opposition to the employer looking to reduce it as

much as possible.)

Gross pay, to a certain extent, appeases workers because they perceive

themselves to be earning more than they are, although they also generally believe

they are being robbed on a regular basis, seeing a considerable amount

clawed back from what they maintain they have rightfully earned. Some of

what is transferred from gross pay to the Inland Revenue and the National

Insurance scheme goes back to workers as various benefits and payments.

Services including defence, policing, health, education and roads, and the

wages of the whole hierarchy of "public servants" from Prime Minister and

Lord of the Admiralty to lowly office clerk, ambulance driver and teaching

assistant are all financed ultimately from the surplus workers generate for

their employers as profits.. The same goes for all the buildings and upkeep

of the same, for the heating, lighting, cleaning, furnishings and all

materials, vehicles - in fact everything used in their operations from

stealth fighter to paper clip.

Today's capitalist world is much more complicated and intertwined than that

of our ancestors. We rely on international trade for many commodities and

use ultra-sophisticated technology to allow us to track transactions

worldwide; technology which, in theory, should simplify most matters, yet

somehow we have become entangled in an overcomplicated web from which it is

difficult to see a way out. Some say there is no way out of the present

system. But socialists disagree. If workers accept that they have to work in

order to live their life - and the vast majority do - does that mean that we

also have to accept the incredible complications that capitalism and working

for money involve (and that have certainly led to the miserable times many

workers are now suffering in the latest financial crisis)? Can we not simply

produce things directly for use, working for ourselves and the common good

too, knowing that others will be doing the same?

Those who work - those who produce the useful things and provide the useful

services - are the lynch pin, the vital component. They are the indispensable ones.

The capitalist, the employer, is dispensable. Removing layers of unnecessary

top-heavy bureaucracy, removing any necessity for taxation by removing the

blight of money is the far simpler way. The nurse will tend the sick, the

plumber will ensure no leaks, the farmer will provide food and the

unemployed will no longer be unoccupied for there is much to be done

cooperatively within all our communities. And plenty enough, too, for all to

partake of the fruits of our collective labour.

JS