On the main difference between capitalism and socialism, other than “Who Chooses?”: Socialism’s failure, and capitalism’s relative success, has much more to do with capitalism’s capacity to generate economically relevant knowledge.” -Kristian Niemietz (Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies)
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Just think of what a single data point yields: Price. At least, not one that is arbitrarily set because of one or more political decisions set by people completely divorced from the design and manufacturing of any kind of widget (be it a 25 cent gew-gaw to multi-million dollar products. Or products never brought to the marketplace because of the Socialist “tell”: you don’t need that! Cost of design, cost of sourcing, cost of logistics, cost of manufacturing, cost of assembling, cost of market and sales, cost of delivery, and cost of support.
All of that at multiple levels via multiple companies.
And let’s not forget the reward of all this disconnected cooperation: profit. Make no mistake, self-interest is a big part of the process. Who doesn’t want to improve their lot in life?
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)