Timework Web wrote:
>
> There's also an important partial truth to the Mises/Hayek critique of
> planning: socialism cannot be calculated. That truth is partial in the
> sense that it is simply part of a larger (and systematically
> disregarded) critique that economy is itself beyond calculation.
As far as I can tell, almost all (or all) critiques of the possibility of
planning assume that the planning must be *successful* in some large and
sweeping sense. But there is no reason whatsoever to make such a demand. Why
shouldn't there be numerous shortages and surpluses? Why shouldn't there be
huge inefficiencies? The human species has gotten along so far with such
inefficiencies -- and if we eliminate huge wealth plus a few other really
gratuitous wastes of capitalism we should do quite well if the core economy
operates at (say) 50% of capitalist effiiciency.
Marx made many errors, but on one point he really was infallible: his refusal
to write recipes for the cookshops of the future. And on that I'm willing to
be sectarian and dogmatic: Anyone who demands or pines for such recipes is not
a marxist -- by which I mean, one should not trust such a person not to turn
one in to the cops or vote war credits.
Carrol
