People are hardwired for incentivized asynalagonomy from birth. Every family uses it and proves it works. Incentives are rewards for good things family members do. Psychologists have proven that positive reinforcement is ten times as effective in raising a child as negative reinforcement. Parents do not charge money to their children for the things they give them. They use the family’s common resources. They communicate each other’s needs and they work together, using what they have, to maximize their quality of life. If a family member wants breakfast, they don’t have to trade anything for it. They simply ask for it, and if resources are sufficient, breakfast is served. That is how incentivized asynalagonomy works.
Incentivized asynalagonomy needs to be contrasted with every other system. Every other system tested on a national level so far has had a currency. There is only one purpose for a currency – trade. When Lenin’s Bolsheviks took over the means of production in Russia, “state capitalism” was implemented, along with “mixed capitalism” of the NEP. In no way was trade eliminated at any point. The state simply took over private enterprise to varying degrees, until it realized it was unable to manage it effectively, and had to hand over some of the operations to private entrepreneurs. The ruble remained its currency and entrepreneurs were taxed, just as in the economy of the United States today. The Russian chevronets was created so that its currency could be backed by gold. Asynalagonomy was not tested in Russia, except in families, where it worked. What was tested and failed on a national level was state capitalism, though many in those countries, especially followers of Trotsky, prefer to think of it as state socialism.
The same holds true for China, North Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. Communism has implemented various forms of state capitalism wherever it has been tested. Mao Zedong called this the “preliminary stage of socialism.” So called “communism” has always suffered from this. It has never advanced beyond its “preliminary” stages, which mixes capitalism with socialism. When its economy staggers, it introduces private enterprise and ownership to increase productivity.
Libertarians and critics of socialism mock them for this while dismissing valid complaints concerning class struggle and the frustration of labor. When inflation outpaces wage increases, when unemployment is rampant and homelessness abounds, when homes are in foreclosure and the gap between rich and poor widens, when large corporations merge smaller ones and every city looks the same because small businesses require significant capital to start, free enterprise can’t be called a success except in a relative way as it is compared to “preliminary socialism.” It isn’t an incentivized asynalagonomy it is being compared to. It is state capitalism.
What is missing in state capitalism that is improved on through mixed capitalism, is an element called “incentive.” People have an incentive to work in capitalist societies and that is what makes them produce. Capitalism fails, however, when there are obstacles to starting businesses because only the tiny funnel of profit making, both short and long term, makes private business ownership feasible – the rest belongs to the few. There is thus failure both for capitalism and for socialism. And neither have their hybrid sociocapitalist forms solved the problem. Incentivized asynalagonomy is the obvious solution because it reintroduces incentives to produce through prestige. No one is bound by class. They all have the opportunity to transcend it. Class is a matter of choice. Transcending it directly contributes to production. The result is all the social benefits of socialism, only without the uncomfortable preliminaries and all of the productivity of capitalism, only with a transposition of the restrictions.
The restrictions of capitalist production presently are the need for profit. In an asynalagonomy, the restriction of production is the need for responsible use of resources – so that both the economy and the environment can be permanently sustained. In short, planning is necessary so that the resources of the earth are not depleted. With capitalism having no inherent concern for the earth’s resources outside of what it needs temporarily for profit making, there can be no question which form of restriction is superior. Incentivized asynalagonomy thus works in families. It will also work for nations and states. And nothing else works.