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> Having individual agents plan their own economic choices is much more efficient There's a great deal of inefficiency in our current system as well, though.

> Having individual agents plan their own economic choices is much more efficient There's a great deal of inefficiency in our current system as well, though. I suppose I'm talking more about the "how much grain should we grow this year" sorts of questions that the Soviet Union failed at. It's almost certainly impossible with early 20th century tech, but with modern computing it seems like it might be more efficient to solve by one party with great resources, rather than by many parties with more primitive predictive tools. When it comes to the discussion at hand, transportation infrastructure is one of the few areas that's inarguably more efficient when centrally conducted, which is why our roads and subways are government-operated, and why the airlines have an insatiable desire to consolidate.

gottorf 3y ago
> with modern computing it seems like it might be more efficient to solve by one party with great resources, rather than by many parties with more primitive predictive tools I'm not sure what technology we have now that the Soviets didn't have that would allow for successful central planning of agriculture. Local boots-on-the-ground conditions vary so much, even from one end of the field to another. That aside, even if we had technology sufficiently advanced so as to be indistinguishable from magic, there's the other great problem that central planning couldn't overcome, which is the problem of human nature and incentives. Many parties with primitive tools who have a direct incentive that their crop is bountiful will beat out the one central party with great resources that nevertheless lacks skin in the game.