Solving Poverty by unknown_girl2345

'To be radical is to grasp things by the root.' -Karl Marx

Note: This was my debate assignment.  I don't believe everything I wrote here, this is theory and I deliberately tried to be provocative. 

The sounds of gunshots outside don’t faze you. The people you see with their hands on someone else’s throat are your neighbours. Your friend was taken out of school. Another goes out at night to peddle drugs. Your sister died before she was 15 , your parents couldn't afford healthcare. You live life on the breadline, your existence as permanent as footprints on sand. You learn not to talk unless asked; you think you’re alive but you know you’re not.

Poverty exists so painfully close for the majority of the world, whether they live in rural Alabama, Mumbai or Addis Ababa; living mouth-to-mouth comes naturally to them. Globally, 1.2 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. To put this into perspective, a Cafe Latte at Starbucks, a privilege many take for granted, costs $ 4.15. 

The poor of the world remain enslaved in a vicious cycle of never ending poverty. The story is simple enough- they were born poor, their parents work hard but earn below the minimum wage, they can’t afford school, they never receive an education beyond the one that teaches them that the world is a harsh, cruel place, and they continue their lives in mind numbing poverty.

The solution exists, but it is not one everyone wants to hear. 

To ensure poverty is eradicated, we must be radical in our approach. Do not seek to narrow the gap between rich and poor. We must destroy it. The key to ending poverty is creating a command economy. There has to be a central government which deals with all the planning of state affairs, but contrary to previous command economies, it will be organised with a bottom-top administration where the workers control the state.

The State Government, or ‘Stagov’ will be made of 2 representatives from each individual state within each country.  ‘Stagov’ would be made of 5 ministries: Education, Welfare (religion, housing, healthcare, pleasure etc), Industry , Innovation and Bureaucracy.

The ministry of Education under Stagov must pursue an aggressive education policy. Each child, no matter race, religion or gender will be given a state approved education. This will include mandatory classes of Mathematics, English, Science and Language to produce efficient workers. At the age of 18, the children will be given an Aptitude Test to decide which profession they are best suited to according to their skills and interests. If Anna had the skills to become an engineer, she would be placed in the ‘Encom’ - The social Commune of Engineers but if she wanted to become a Farmer, she would be in ‘Farmcom’ instead. If she chose ‘Encom’ the government would ensure that Anna would go to university to receive a Bachelor’s degree in engineering. This aids our aim of combating poverty as everyone must be fully employed. 

This means that the child now is under the Ministry of Industry, to which the Social Communes belong. This ministry will be in charge of regulating the working conditions, work hours of each worker under them as well as assigning workers to specialised jobs within the profession so efficiency is increased. The official age for retirement will be 65 but if the worker is unfit to serve, the ministry will discharge the worker before 65 but continue to pay the worker from the pension (Funpend) they have. Funpend is sustained by annually deducted sums  from a worker’s income based on the amount of work done so this encourages workers to do more so they can have a higher pension fund. The interesting part is to combat poverty, we must ensure there is no inequality between the workers, but from there our economic problem arises! How to ensure equality but create incentives for workers to work and be creative and innovative?

The Stagov’s answer to this is the Ministry of Innovation. For every 15 Opec (the currency) that a worker outearns the government minimum wage which every worker gets, according to their extra labour , the ministry will present the worker with a ‘Pentoke’ or 45 tokens to spend on things like food, and basic necessities such as toothpaste or toilet paper. This way the monetary income paid to the worker remains the same but the worker receives benefit in terms of perishable goods. This ensures equality to the greatest extent that can be achieved is achieved. When a worker regularly surpasses minimum requirements, the government shall place him in the Ministry of Innovation, where it will become his/her job to create inventions in their field of expertise. The benefits are higher Pentoke rewards, and the highest rewards allows the worker the chance to choose which furniture and furnishings their house has. Isn't this inequality? The only answer to this question is that the government will producing standard furniture and house decoration for all the houses and will provide it free of charge until it is damaged, upon which Stagov will demand a 20%-70% payment of the original cost price. This way everyone has the same essentials, it’s just that (since the Ministry of Industry will produce at least 2 different models of the same product) they will get to have a preference. 

Now comes the Ministry of Welfare. This organ of Stagov is perhaps one of the most important ministries, as it deals with healthcare, religion, housing and so on. However, the ministry is in charge of creating ‘Culture Consumption’ for the masses. This means that it is tasked with producing things like novels, Television Programs (every house will have a Stagov-approved Television), Newspapers, Music Videos and Songs. In a purely capitalist society, people who worked as writers or singers would most likely have struggled to find a decent job with acceptable wages. Stagov clearly addresses this need to fix the income disparity within the professions to destroy poverty. The ministry deals with food , production and allocation of consumer goods and rationing.

Last but definitely not least comes the Ministry of Bureaucracy. This deals with the finances and economic policies of the Stagov and will include a planning agency. The main function of this agency is to create and administer the various economic plans. Contrary to the famous Soviet Command Style policy of ‘material balancing, Stagov will use an ‘input-output’ system as developed by Wassily Leontief, whose model depicted the inter-industry relationships in an economy. This is incredibly useful for Stagov in illustrating how an output from one industrial sector may be transformed into an input for another. When this structure is incorporated into national accounting, we can quickly and efficiently calculate measures like national GDP.

Furthermore, the ministry will be in charge of running the elections. Although there can only be one government, Stagov, the people running for the elections must come from the industrial or commercial working class, not the Government Officials. This is to ensure the People are accurately represented. The role of Prime Minister in a capitalist economy will be replaced by a Premier and his cabinet of advisors. The primer can only stay in power for a maximum of 2 terms. He must run for elections every term. To ensure the elections are fair, officials from other countries are called to regulate the elections. The ministry of Bureaucracy presides over the Council of Defence/Security so as to ensure the Premier cannot abuse the military for his own power. 

Bureaucracy is also tasked with ensuring the formation of precious foreign relations through its Council of Foreign Affairs, where diplomats are employed. Trade treaties, and arrangements for holidays abroad are arranged there. Holidays abroad will be arranged according to which social commune you belong to ( here it would be helpful to think of a commune as an overactive Trade union). Encom would contact the Council of Foreign Affairs (Cofas) to arrange a holiday in Thailand with 20% of its hardest working employees, for example, and since there is an understanding between the countries, Encom would pay less than it would without the Cofas*. 

In conclusion, solving poverty is hard but not impossible.