Elites - Part 2

There are five layers in society and in organizations:

1) Executives: Royal family, premiers i.e. kings, presidents etc.

2) Elites: CEOs, directors, managers etc.

3) Specialists: Accountants, technicians, supervisors, traders, craftsmen etc.

4) Workers: Farmers, factory labor.

5) Penny-Less: Immigrants, unemployed, refugees, prisoners, slaves, beggars, disabled etc.

Lets start from bottom. Penny-less are those people that are so poor they practically have no possessions. They include the beggars, the new immigrants who are unable to bring any possessions, refugees, unemployed, slaves etc. These people are responsibility of other people to feed and cloth. They are outside the economic system, slaves are also outside the economic system because usually they are used for personal services, not for economic services. The healthy proportion of this class is less than 10% of population. Once it reaches double figures obvious problems begins and at 20% the entire economic system is a run away system which can't be repaired or recovered by normal human actions. Collapse comes later, at 25% when the economic system breaks down and a new system emerges.

Whatever could be done humanly can be done before the 20% level. After it nothing short of a miracle can prevent the collapse. Note that the problem accelerates as it increases, so its a short time duration between 20% and 25%. French Revolution came when 25% population of Paris consisted of beggars and shortly before that the number was 20%.

Increase and decrease in this class comes from the worker class. As economic conditions deteriorate, more and more workers go out of work or can't feed or cloth themselves even when working, so the penny-less class increases. In a cruel system where workers are not paid enough it can be that the entire worker class is non-existent as they are all practically in the penny-less class. These system are inherently unstable and a small uprising can collapse the entire system.

For a stable economic system, the workers have to be fed and cloth properly. Hunger is not tolerated for more than half a week and within a matter of a week or month the system stops running. Both Russian and French revolutions came at time of enough food in stocks but unavailable to the worker class due to high prices. Those prices were high due to inflation induced by government. Government induced that inflation to finance war or war preparation.

War is a dangerous thing because of its ability to bring down not just the economic but also the political system very quickly even in case of victory if too many resources are spent. If war abroad is getting too expensive and reduction in war budget risks defeat at front, its better to retreat back to one's own territory and then get attacked by enemy army in one's own country. Its because usually people are willing to sacrifice more for defense than for offense.

If workers are not paid enough, they would join the penny-less class and if enough of them join that a revolt is imminent and collapse very likely. If workers are paid above a certain level they could stop being workers and join the specialists class. If enough of them join the specialists class then elites do not get enough income. If elites do not get enough income then military suffers and country can be easily defeated militarily at front. A way around to that is taxing the specialists but due to the very nature of their work specialists can easily shift most of their economic activities in the undocumented, shadow economy therefore paying little tax. Also a large specialists class depending on a small worker class is like an inverted pyramid resting on its tip, very unstable. Food and goods shortages can come very quickly killing the specialists class.

The elites needs workers to produce food and goods. Note that workers are not supposed to produce services. Some services are public, things like education, medical, judiciary, security, record-keeping etc and must be provided by government for free. Some services are commercial, things like transportation, trade, hair cutting etc, and must be provided by specialists.

Elites are supposed to use workers to produce goods and services so that:

• A regular supply of these items is guaranteed.

• Elites and by extension government can have a stable stream of income.

•  In war supply of essentials is ensured, even when producing them is uneconomical.

•  Specialists can be supported. Merchants need stuff to trade. Specialists need stuff.

Therefore, in the proposed economic system, elites controls all farms, factories, mines, forests etc. These are not all of the factories, just the factories that provides essential stuff such as unstitched cloth, leather, dyes, tools, iron, wood planks, medicines etc. Specialists can use these goods to make their stuff for e.g. tailor and dye clothes, make shoes, make furniture, make buildings using tools.

Elites have to be countryside-based, means not live in cities. This is needed because:

• Farms, forests and mines are primary source of production for entire economy. Everything that is produced comes from there. Since these things are at country-side, out at open, elites must live nearby to control workers efficiently.

• This implies that factories must be in estates, not in cities. This reduces pollution, diseases, crime rates etc in cities. Since these factories are specialized in whatever farm, forest or mine is nearby its more efficient to produce finished goods there than bringing the raw materials to cities and producing there then getting rid of wastes.

• In era of air raids, air bombings, missiles and nuclear attacks, putting factories at country-side has more chance of survival of industrial base during wars.

•  Young men of small cities and villages have no more need of moving to cities as respectable work is provided where they are.

• Putting industrial base in villages have unavoidable side-effect of decentralizing industrial base. This do result in less control of central government but helps in faster growth as very little regulations can be applied from so far. Also each of the estate can develop its own business processes well suited to its unique needs, this is better than a few buerreaucrats sitting in center city making empire wide decisions having little knowledge of situation on ground.

• The very nature of system is that those same elites that are responsible for production are also responsible for fighting wars for the empire. When they go fight they fight not just for the empire but for their very own estates as well.

Decentralized system has its drawbacks. Most prominent is lots of power in hands of elites. That power can result in lots of revolts of elites from the center. This could be tackled easily by having no large estates. Another problem is that border estates might not be helped in time from inner estates due to personal hatreds letting enemy forces destroy the border estates.

When war happens, we need both continued, even increased production of food and goods, for fighting as well as for repairing, and soldiers to actually fight at front. The proposed system make it duty of the same elites to do both. Since the same elite cannot be at two places at the same time, we have to have either two types of elites, one economical and one military, or set only a few mandatory days of military service on elites. The few mandatory military service days is not going to cut it because wars can be long and we might be needing all of the elites at front. Also the elites can be martyred at front then who is going to manage the estate for production?

One way is to have elites in charge of estates, but only like lions, means all the work is done by administrators and the elites just watch and tweak things and re-engineer business processes once in a while but do not interfere in normal running of the system. Since during wars we cannot afford to experiment new business processes we cannot re-engineer the business processes till war is over so elites are basically free to go to front.

When elites get martyred at fronts, some other elites have to take care of the family of the martyred elite, till one son of the martyred elite grow up to handle the estate. This cannot be much burden on elites because elites do not have to interfere with administrative tasks anyway. Also some of the martyred elites can be quickly replaced by brothers or sons who are old enough to handle the estates.

In this situation, the administrators can get very powerful once war starts and elites are gone to front. This can be handled by having large elite families in estates, that can stand with wives of elites in case of internal uprisings. This has its own problem of putting two elites at same estate, even if they are brothers, each elite would want complete control and elite families would have inner fights and power struggles.

One way is to have auxillary families around the elite family in each estate. These can be friends or relatives or neighbours, people well known and trusted by the elite. The auxillaries would have to be freely fed and cloth and provided a living standard higher than workers but lower than the elites, so that they side with the elites. The auxillaries can act as trusted guards and private armies of the elite family. This is other than the normal private army the elite would support on expense of government. The auxillaries have to be supported by the elite from his personal income.

The auxillaries need not be friends or relatives or neighbours, they could be slaves or servants, loyal to elites. For this system to work, some safeguards must be put in place:

• Incomes of elites must be large enough to support those auxillaries.

• Auxillaries must have some training for fighting, militia level training is enough. Need not be trained like regular soldiers because they are not expected to fight a regular army.

• Wife of the elite must be capable enough to command the auxillaries.

• Auxillaries have to be other than regular soldiers also provided by estate. Those soldiers are one of the specialists, means not included in worker class, means do not do any production work.

• Threat is from only one person, the administrator. One way is to have multiple administrators, so that they can be played against each other. Also the seat of elite must be at a separate place, away from the estates in control of the adminstrators. This implies that each elite has multiple estates which is needed anyways because of the fixed size of estates and higher officers getting multiple estates.

• Administrators must be kept away from all military exercises. 

• One way is to not have any fighting militia slaves or servants, just have regular slaves or servants. In war ofcourse not all of the elites can be sent to front. Typically atleast one quarter of them need to be stayed behind, to protect against air raids, paratroopers, spies etc and also to help elite families in case of administrator mutinies.

• Administrators actually do get some fighting force, the police. Controlling workers needs some police and regular army cannot be wasted in that. We have to make sure that police do not get any fire arms and work with sticks only. Still the administrator can train them in hiding, get access to estate armoury and get some weapons, invade the elite's house.

• In case of mutiny by administrator, air raid, paratroopers, spies etc, safety of elite family and that of workers and specialists depend on a strong house. This is the house of the elite. This has to be near the houses of workers and specialists. Penny-less do not live in houses. Factories and farms must be at some distance so when they get blown away lives can be saved. 

• In no way rule of administrator on estate in any case is accepted. So even if an administrator do get hold of an estate, as soon as news reach the nearest army head quarter a force is sent and administrator is captured and quickly hanged.

• To protect against air raids, paratroopers, spies its great to have estate at country side. The large number of estates, each having a small factory makes it non-practical for enemy to destroy the industrial base by bombing. Too many targets for enemy. An enemy plane is fight is under threat of getting fired whenever it passes an estate below. Paratroopers and spies can be detected easily because of strangeness.

An elite is equal to rank of atleast a major. So a captain is like a supervisor. Its because captains fight with soldiers but majors do not usually fight, majors perform administrative duties which at battlefield includes a lots of planning.