On August 29 at 5pm UTC, the Boston College Labor-Time Economy Working Group (BC-LTEWG) will present an agent-based computer simulation model of a labor-time socialist economy. Their project brings together ideas drawn from the Group of International Communists’ 1930 Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution, classical linear production theory, and modern cybernetics to implement a pragmatic model of an economic system characterized by local decision-making, in which stability arises as an emergent property. This economic model presupposes socialized means of production and local, democratic, worker control of enterprises, uses labor-time credits instead of money to measure exchange values, and does not support private profits or rents. Autonomous firms, planning democratically, form nodes in a parallel distributed system, in which global prices are regularly readjusted to reflect average production requirements, and in which cybernetic signal-and-control mechanisms enable the nodes to coordinate with each other and the system to remain stable through changing conditions without needing global information (except current prices) or a central planning hierarchy, thus freeing up global political processes for high-level policy decisions. Starting from random initial conditions of production (e.g., inputs and costs), they simulate individuals buying what they need from distributors in exchange for labor-time credits; distributors order goods from producers to stock their shelves; and producers order inputs needed for production from upstream producers, including both goods (fluid capital) and machinery (fixed capital). All firms organize their work according to plans that pair work targets with labor-time budgets, and all firms pay their workers in labor-time credits. Prices are based on current average socially necessary direct and indirect labor, and are updated whenever a plan is completed, based on actual direct and indirect labor expenditures, as measured, in part, by in-kind accounting. Workers may be asked to move voluntarily from one firm to another in response to changes in demand. Firms take workers’ skills into account in placing them. Earnings are taxed through the factor of individual consumption (FIC) to support a public fund, which makes certain goods available to all, free of charge. With rich graphic visualizations of the system’s behavior, they show that supply consistently meets demand without central coordination. Their findings suggest that a labor-time socialist economy based on decentralized planning is a viable way to coordinate production in the modern world.

More info and registration: https://www.indep.network/event/indep-online-talk-with-the-boston-college-labor-time-economy-working-group-simulating-a-labor-time-socialist-economy/