Just-in-Time Socialism

Basic Information

Just-in-Time Socialism is a proposed form of economic system based on Socialist economics. It seeks to do away with the traditional inefficiency of Socialism - namely, that it is hard to predict just what kinds of products the economy might need, leading to both shortages and overproduction of goods. Advanced computer models which are able to predict demand and supply much more accurately will reduce these problems, and thus increase the efficiency of a socialized economy significantly.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Three Possible Economic Models (Part 1) by Jamais Cascio

2. Three Possible Economic Models (Part 2) by Jamais Cascio

3. Review of //Red Plenty// from Slate Star Codex

Game and Story Use

• This kind of economy might be appropriate for settings with a Zeerust atmosphere. After all, the "Foundation" series by Isaac Asimov revolved around a galactic society where it was possible to predict future developments of said society with mathematical models to a high degree - so why not do the same for the economy and make a Socialist economy work?
• In fantasy campaigns, there might be seers and prophets who can perceive the future accurately enough to play the role of the computer simulations.
• For those who have had this dropped on them by the randomiser and are trying to use it to build a nation: this will still suffer from socialism's basic inability to understand the concept of utility. At best it will probably manage to ensure that appropriate supplies are in place at appropriate times - something real-life socialism almost never manages - but is just as likely to result in large quantities of tangentially useful material being dumped into the supply chain at intervals the computer considers relevant with feedback being clumsy and slow at best.