A bureaucrat of a lower rank is no better. He is to manage an enterprise. He does not understand the principle of the superior profitability of national economy; moreover it disgusts him thoroughly, because his personal and clannish objects substitute for social ones that determine the principle of the superior profitability. This principle secures his wealth in the future on a par with all people. Nevertheless the fact that business is subject to this principle, so that resources and production facilities are to be used according to it, prevents the bureaucrat from abusing his position and getting rich to the prejudice of others, both: at present and in the future.
In the same way it is impossible to use over and above the plan production facilities under bureaucratic rule. Using over and above the plan production facilities in essence requires expansion of the scope of commodity-money exchange in Socialist economy. The scope should embrace public enterprises of national economy. Then it would become possible to organize self-regulation of the usage of over and above the plan production facilities in national economy. It could be done when they would appear not to be used in a planned work. The immediate person in charge of the facilities would manage it without wasting time on forwarding ideas, arranging meetings, changing the plan in action. It would help to avoid standstill of facilities until they are used for planned production in the next planning period.
But bureaucratic rule left out such a possibility, because production facilities belonged completely to bureaucrats, that is business managers and directors. Legalization of the machine of market self-regulation when using over and above the plan production facilities led automatically to sabotage, both deliberate and accidental. Deliberate sabotage was aimed at discrediting Socialism and re-establishing Capitalism. Accidental sabotage was through ignorance. It urged to rush for profits in order to improve the well being of their own group to the detriment of production objects of great importance to society.
The rule of Marxism political economy rooted out the possibility to expose deliberate sabotage and to leave out sabotage through ignorance. Here some explanation is needed.
Henry Ford, being a private proprietor de jure, regarded his enterprises common wealth de facto. Therefore concluding purchase and sale deals and adopting the policy of planned reduction in price for output goods to serve people he objectively worked for the principle of the superior profitability of US national economy. He did not care about correlation of purchase and sale based on property law with the status of public property of his own enterprises. Political economy as a means of organizing sensible public work on the basis of a common world out-look did not matter to him. The reason was that he did not realize it had such a function. He regarded all contemporary political economy experts as windbags and drones whom conscientious working people had to feed. Actually that was essentially true.
In the USSR things were different. Bureaucrats regarded enterprises of public property as their private property within the limits of their authority. Marxism political economy would not answer to the following question:
What if a state owned (Soviet) enterprise transfers some money to the account of another state owned enterprise as a payment (or som e thing else) for certain goods or services produced by the second ente r prise?
Unlike H. Ford, J.V. Stalin being the leader of the ruling party and the head of the state thought over this problem and the consequences of it being unsolved. He realized the role of sociological theories and particularly theories of political economy as a means of organizing sensible public work on the basis of a common world out-look. J.V. Stalin wrote the following lines on the problem of an unintelligible interpretation of such questions in Marxism political economy:
«It therefore follows that in the sphere of foreign trade the means of production produced by our enterprises retain the properties of commodities both essentially and formally, but that in the sphere of domestic economic circulation, means of production lose the properties of commodities, cease to be commodities and pass out of the sphere of operation of the law of value, retaining only the outward integument of commodities (calculation, etc.).
How is this peculiarity to be explained?
(…)
If the matter is approached from the formal angle, from the angle of the processes taking place on the surface of phenomena, one may arrive at the incorrect conclusion that the categories of capitalism retain their validity under our economy. If, however, the matter is approached from the standpoint of Marxist analysis, which strictly distinguishes between the substance of an economic process and its form, between the deep processes of development and the surface phenomena, one comes to the only correct conclusion, namely, that it is chiefly the form, the outward appearance, of the old categories of capitalism that have remained in our country, but that their essence has radically changed in adaptation to the requirements of the development of the socialist economy» (put in bold type by the authors). “Economic Problems of Socialism in the U.S.S.R.”, “Reply to Comrade Alexander Ilyich Notkin”, part 3 “The third point”).
If we do not examine the problem within the bounds of Marxism we can come to the only right conclusion:
Marxism political economy does not call all things and phenomena by their proper names. Consequently there appears inconsistency of the form and the content of a phenomenon.
In situations of this kind concordance of form and content is a subjective matter:
As far as H. Ford and J.V. Stalin are concerned it is in favor of public property de facto, planned beginning on a national scale, the principle of superior profitability of national economy based on effective management of business and prices according to real present and future needs of conscientious working people and the state concerning products and services;
In case with a Soviet bureaucrat, a Marxist and dogmatist it is in favor of himself and to the prejudice of ideals and the cause of Communism. One cannot find fault with it: everything is justifiable by Communist advisability expressed in Marxism. A person has a right to interpret it in a certain way according to his/her position in the hierarchy of post subordination.
The inconsistency of form and content is not the result of Marxism only, but of any modification of the I-centered worldview. In order to establish the unity of form and content[425] an alternative comprehensive sociological theory was needed that would call things and phenomena by their proper names, thus secure uniqueness of life conception for different people.
If a theory of this kind were developed, well-meant but ignorant bureaucrats would begin changing the structure of their mind while mastering the theory. They would adopt their subjective ideas of life to reality and consequently would quit being bureaucrats. They would become good managers and businessmen, Bolshevik entrepreneurs. The theory would help most people expose ill-intentioned «know-alls» pursuing the object of destroying Socialism advances and re-establishing a kind of legalized crowd-“elitism”. As a consequence of this unsolved problem alongside with some others J.V. Stalin was right under those social and historic circumstances to limit the scope of commodity-money exchange (trade in the field of production). The limitation was implemented by means of interaction of the state economic sector and co-operative one on the basis of prices established by the state.