From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Oct 20 2002 - 10:41:56 MDT
Ron H. writes
> lcorbin@tsoft.com writes:
>> There is a reason that [we are in unexplored economic territory].
>> It's too difficult for all the geniuses and all the computer
>> simulations and programs that thousands and thousands of economists
>> around the world have tried.
> Yes, if you read von Hayek's Road to Serfdom he describes the
> situation you have just mentioned and says that at some point a
> planned economy gets too complex for an elected legislature to manage.
I forgot to credit Hayak; I have read "The Fatal Conceit", and all
of those who disbelief in the efficacy of central planning should
acknowledge Hayak and Von Mieses as our forefathers.
But I'm not so sure about your phrase "at some point a planned
economy gets to complex" to manage. I think that from the outset
*every* economy gets too complex to manage in the sense that
it would be more productive and more suitable to the people
if it were *not* managed.
> At that time conditions often get so bad that the electorate
> starts demanding a strongman take over to make the decisions
> to make things come out right.
That's plausible, but on the other hand, mostly it's the other
way around. A planned economy comes into being when a strongman
seizes control. Of course, perhaps most often of all, the two
simply go together: the people want socialism (actually that
happens very rarely), and appoint a strongman to make it happen.
> You mentioned "Axiom #1 has to be: there is no accounting for
> taste." Let me offer Axiom #2, "There is always a thug that
> thinks he is God and will kill to prove it."
Yes, and you never need more than a thousand men to find one.
Lee
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