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"The Use of Knowledge in Society" [0], Hayek's famous essay on the subject, is an enjoyable 12-page read. I first read it as an undergraduate economics major, a
by pash 11y ago
"The Use of Knowledge in Society" [0], Hayek's famous essay on the subject, is an enjoyable 12-page read. I first read it as an undergraduate economics major, and it remains one of my favorite economics papers for its clear and simple insight into the role of markets as basic mechanisms of social organization.
If you want to get a feel for what the other side of things was like in Hayek's era, I recommend a curious book written a few years ago by Francis Spufford called Red Plenty [1], which illustrates (partly in fact, partly in fiction) the immense ambition of economists at Gosplan, and the even bigger task they faced, as they tried to modernize the Soviet economy of the 1950s and '60s.
0. https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/top20/35.4.519-530.pdf https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/top20/35.4.519-530.pdf
1. http://www.redplenty.com/Front_page.html http://www.redplenty.com/Front_page.html
- bsbechtel 11y agoI'm a big fan of Hayek, however I don't think he ever discussed what I feel is the strongest argument against state-sponsored central planning - contingency planning. When the government decides it needs to be responsible for some basic human need because it is too important to be left up to the free market, such as food security or healthcare, it crowds out alternatives that actually behave as valuable insurance/backups to a primary provider of a given good or service. If/when the government fails at providing something as vital as food or water, there isn't much you can do when the government controls the means of production. If a natural monopoly exists, people are at least free to find alternatives on their own, and thus profit from them, should those managing that natural monopoly fail at their jobs.