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The question that arises with respect to non-basic vouchers is how we can determine the rates of exchange, in other words, the “prices” at which work is exchanged with non-basic vouchers. For basic vouchers, that is no problem because everybody has to work a minimum number of hours to meet his or her basic needs. But with non-basic vouchers, there is a question of what is the rate of remuneration. Now, here, we can take into account – and that’s why I talked before about an artificial market – the demand and supply conditions of the past. In other words, if, say, a mobile phone is characterized as a non-basic good by the assemblies and if, say, over the past six months, in this community, there has been an offer of, say, 100,000 non-basic vouchers in the purchase of mobiles, and with these 100,000 vouchers people could buy 1,000 mobiles because that was the total production of mobiles, then, if we divide the number of vouchers used in the purchase of mobiles by the number of mobiles produced, we get 100. So the price of a mobile is 100 non-basic vouchers. And, similarly, we can find out the price of any other non-basic good, in other words, by taking into account what production took place over a period of time and, also, what the demand for this particular type of good and service was. This way, therefore, we start with actual demand and actual supply conditions rather than – and this is a major drawback of most planning systems – by asking people in advance what they wish to buy and then calculating accordingly, through the planning mechanism, what is to be produced. The disadvantage of all these types of planning is that people have to decide six months or a year in advance what exactly they are going to buy, which, of course, is something that seriously restricts freedom of choice.
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Entretanto, tanto as assembléias demóticas como as de produção restringem-se ao nível local. Temos, porém, de pensar que também existem problemas relevantes de ordem regional ou nacional, ou até mesmo de ordem continental. Por isso também carecemos do que podemos chamar de assembléias regionais, como se pode ver no diagrama, que decidem sobre que problemas não podem ser resolvidos em nível local. Porque, em princípio, todas as principais decisões são tomadas em nível local, porém existem problemas que não podem ser resolvidos nesse nível - pensem em transporte, energia, comunicação. Não se pode resolver esses tipos de problemas em nível local, portanto deveria existir uma assembléia regional consistindo de delegados das assembléias demóticas - que não toma decisões. Isto é importante, porque a assembléia regional é um conselho administrativo e não um organismo de políticas. Lembrem, temos delegados, não representantes, portanto a partir das assembléias um número de delegados é eleito para as assembléias regionais, a fim de implementar as decisões tomadas pela assembléia demótica.
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