Actually, what you're writing about -- the very fact that the economy is so complex that nobody can fathom it -- is pretty much what one of the Austrian gods, F

Actually, what you're writing about -- the very fact that the economy is so complex that nobody can fathom it -- is pretty much what one of the Austrian gods, Friedrich Hayek, wrote, and he earned a Nobel Prize (partly) for this. Yes, it's quite impossible for any one entity to understand all that's going on: every project and its priority; every input to those projects, and how readily other inputs can be substituted (aluminum instead of steel? we could do it, but...), and so on. The only way to work this stuff out is to let the market handle it. And this is exactly what is being done when you see prices fluctuate in response to supply and demand, etc. This allows people to indicate directly just how important each choice is to them.