>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/13/00 10:12PM >>>
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.
))))))))))))
CB: Yea, the best laid plans of mice and men have often gone astray, but it would be
foolish not to plan, plan and plan again.
((((((((
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.
