Socialism doesn't work because it fails to take the dark side of human nature into account, this is true (no pun intended by the way). Not only does socialism fail because the evils of human nature lead to corruption/ powermongering etc, but the socialist system itself brings those evils about due to the inherent backwards structure. Not only does socialism flounder on the badness of men, it actually brings out the badness of men. Hayek makes a fascinating and powerful argument for this view, and I highly recommend his book for ANYone who has a true interest in political ideologies- or who just appreciates powerful arguments. And human nature aside, central command economies would have ultimately failed miserably anyway. Think about it. The major function of capitalism is freely determined price discovery so that capital can be allocated accurately and efficiently. Command economies never understood this. There is simply no way for them to determine prices accurately. How many people does it take to set the price of something simple like yogurt? You have about twenty five or thirty different price points between raw ingredients and packaged product on the shelf- and all those price points are set independently and fluctuate constantly due to the self interested judgment calls of farmers, packagers, manufacturers, distributors, truckers, grocery stores, consumers, on and on and on. All those minds come together in their own interest and set prices that allow them to make a profit and voila, we have yogurt. Now compare that to the command economy process. A guy in a smoky room says 'yogurt should be this price' and there is a memo sent to the factory. One guy with a cigar pulling a price out of nowhere, as compared to literally thousands of participants determining prices based on their own knowledge of costs, production, viability, desirability etc. The central planned economy idea is as silly as having one McDonald's manager for all the McDonalds in the entire United States. After 'Road to Serfdom' by FA Hayek, the next book on the list should be 'Basic Economics' by Thomas Sowell. A must read.
Yo RS, I thought this was supposed to be simple! My head is spinning from communism to easter bunny to Ghengis Kahn!!! Whats the deal poppy??? PUBLIAS
Bro you are seriously not well... I was laughing hysterical at your WAR, sickness, and bad trading post!!!! I think you should use it!
I thought this is what I said And I never read an economics book in my life. It's just common sense. Yo Publias, It's never "simple" once the Dark one gets his 2mmmmmmm cents in He wanted praise for refraining, but lo and behold, he couldn't control himself! Such is the nature of our Dark friend. And I have met the Easter Bunny. He is a nefarious and quite odorous rodent with nothing but malice and perverse sex on his agenda. And Santa's elves are totally scrouged re. their 401k's. The world is a mess, and it has fallen upon me to expose certain truths. Lyndon Johnson was suckered by Maxwell Taylor, and that SOB Westmoreland. But Bert from Sesame Street was a truly evil character. No doubt. Peace and Stuff to all, RS7
That guy in the smoky room (the economists that did the central planning were among the brightest people on this planet, by the way, and it was not as simple and/or arbtitrary as you depict ), had VERY good information as to the costs of producing yogurt all over the country. He also had a good idea of what margin was fair and needs to be earned so that the products would be in demand and goods would be supplied. Some products would subsidize others etc. The gains were shared relatively equaly by society - whether in the form of lower prices, or the benefits that the profits earned were used to create. I can only imagine how great that system could work now, if all the sales data were fed in almost realtime into their models... The innate defects of human nature you point out are valid, but they weren't a big problem then really. The major problem that slowed down the economic progress and led to inferior quality in products was the lack of incentives for people to try harder. There were many, but it wasn't enough. If that was encouraged more, e.g. via patenting and SUBSTANTIAL monetary benefits potentially (don't have to be sky high, maybe 100 mil bucks cap), things would follow a much different path...
What a pity for you, then, that neither lower prices nor any other 'benefits' actually materialised. In essence, what you are saying is that a few people are smarter than the market (and you're a trader! ). Why you choose to remain ignorant to the dismal failure of your 'brilliant' model is beyond me. Vlad, do yourself a HUGE favor and do ask darkhorse suggests: pick up a copy of "Road to Serfdom", Hayek; "Basic Economics", Sowell (don't let the title fool you). I would also add to that "The Commanding Heights", Daniel Yergin and "Vision Of the Anointed", another Sowell gem.
B/c it never failed It was a confluence of historic events, poor execution, and exogeneous influences from outside the country. The system never failed. One case of it's implementation might have...