However, such a mode of production exists only in Kautsky's fantasy or in that of the 'natural economists', who would like to see the economy managed by a central authority. In addition, they conceive the monstrous idea that each separate factory, the parts of the whole, would not have responsibility for maintaining exact accounting control over the process of production in their factory! The parts of the trust, however, produce as if they were to some extent independent, for the simple reason that otherwise planned production would prove impossible. Indeed, even in the interests of securing rational operation, this is now more than obligatory. It is for this reason that as exact a method of accounting on the basis of a unit of social regulation and accounting control as can be achieved is an absolute necessity for moneyless exchange within a single trust:
"There exist relations between the separate production installations, and these relations will remain for so long as the division of labour exists, and the division of labour in this higher sense will continue to develop further with the progress made in the development of technique." (6)
"All impersonal prerequisites for production, all half-finished materials, all raw materials and auxiliary materials delivered by other productive establishments to those destined to work them up further, will indeed be placed to their account, ie., will be factorised." (7)
"The cartel magnates or - in a socialist economy - the managers of the entire economy, will not permit the various industrial establishments responsible for the same production programme to produce according to different methods and different costs. Under capitalism, this in many cases also forms an incentive for the weaker concerns to permit themselves to be "swallowed" willy-nilly by some giant agglomerate, in the hope that now for their factory also the form of organisation recognised to be the most efficient - the best manufacturing methods, the most diligent officials - will be drawn into the task of raising the productivity of the factory. For this to be a success, it will however be necessary to show under separate headings the results of all other factories and productive installations, and also to manage matters - whether in a capitalist or in a socialist economy is irrelevant - as if each factory had its own independent proprietor who wished to have at his disposal exact data concerning the economic results of production in his establishment. For this reason extremely strict accounting control is maintained within the cartel, and any idea that within the cartel commodities may be embezzled without further account being taken - in short, that within the separate industrial installations the keeping of a clear account as to the distinction between 'mine' and 'thine' will not prevail - belongs in fact to the world of popular misconceptions concerning capitalism, as indeed of socialism also." (8)
Seen from this point of view, the alleged impossibility of calculating the amount of labour which lies embedded in a particular product appears in a different light. To determine that which Kautsky, from his central economic headquarters, cannot determine, namely, how much realised labour-time a product has absorbed during its long journey from one partial operation to another in the course of the production process - that task, the producers themselves can now be seen to be fully capable of performing. The secret lies in the fact that each factory, managed and administered by its "factory organisation", functions as an independent unit, exactly as in capitalism:
"At a first glance, one would assume that each separate productive establishment were more or less independent, but upon making a closer examination one would see quite clearly the umbilical cord joining the individual factory to the rest of the economy and to its administration." (9)
In the chain of partial processes, each factory has its final product, which can then be introduced into other factories as means of production. And, furthermore, each individual factory is perfectly capable of calculating the average labour-time used up in producing its products by application of its production formula (p + c) + L. In the example of the shoe factory mentioned above, 3.125 Labour-Hours were found to be the "unit cost" of a pair of shoes. The result of such a unit calculation for an individual factory is a factory average, which expresses how many Labour-Hours are contained in a pair of shoes, a tonne of coal or a cubic metre of gas, etc.
6. O Leichter: Die Wirtschaftsrechnung in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft, page 54.return to text
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References
7. O Leichter: Die Wirtschaftsrechnung in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft, page 68.return to text
8. O Leichter: Die Wirtschaftsrechnung in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft, page 52 - 53.return to text
9. O Leichter: Die Wirtschaftsrechnung in der sozialistischen Gesellschaft, page 100.
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