From: Guru George (gurugeorge@sugarland.idiscover.co.uk)
Date: Mon Jan 06 1997 - 13:01:31 MST
Peter McCluskey wrote:-
> Capitalism has checks and balances which work almost perfectly in
>the presence of perfect information, fail almost completely under
>conditions of total ignorance. We operate under conditions which
>are far from those extremes.
I think you've got it completely the wrong way round. The checks and
balances operate to cope with conditions of ignorance.
This general Austrian economic point:- we are all relatively ignorant of
the factors that will influence a given outcome, all economic activity
is to that extent entrepreneurial. Hayek's addendum:- there is
knowledge around that does include all the factors, but it is dispersed
among all the relevant economic actors, each of whom has a piece of the
puzzle, sometimes not even consciously (it may be a knack, or know-how,
etc.).
There *are* no "conditions of perfect information."
Guru George
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