I think we've crossed a complexity threshold beyond which there are systemic problems whose solutions cannot be expressed in terms of price alone. It's like we

I think we've crossed a complexity threshold beyond which there are systemic problems whose solutions cannot be expressed in terms of price alone. It's like we're trying to implement factorial in morse code--it's just not the tool for the job. For instance, maybe Alice wants $5 worth of some resource, and if she gets it she'll be happy. Bob wants $5 of the same resource, and when he gets it he'll put some plan into action that makes $100 worth of some different resource available to Charlie. But there's a shortage, so Alice and Bob are in competition, and neither is willing to pay $6 for it. The price system doesn't give a reason to favor selling the resource to Bob. It's up to Charlie to notice the hazard before the transaction occurs and give Bob $1 to tip the scales in his favor--which is a challenging trick to pull off in a world that thinks that price alone should do the trick.