I have my own theory for a modified communism. What I suggest is a sort of "lottery" for innovation. Kinda like the Anasazi X Prize, where if you invent something useful, you get a large sum of money.

And I suppose the government would keep a list of things that "need" to be invented/done. This is just a simple idea I have right now, it would probably need more failsafe laws in order to not be abused, but I think it's a good idea to pay people who actually deserve it rather than the democratic way of paying people for what the public thinks is good for them (overpaid actors, etc.)

I suppose there could be a voting system for things that need to be done.