No single individual, nor any collection of individuals, could have in their heads all the complex technical information on production processes and the nuances of personal feeling involved in matching millions of investment sources and users.
The most efficient and imposing bank, corporation, or government bureau has only scratched the surface. The astronomical amount of knowledge in the whole system is sorted and coordinated in fragments by the simple process of each transactor seeking the best deal from his own subjective viewpoint and not necessarily (or even usually) by knowing why the deal that suits him best emerged as it did from the millions of other possibilities in the market.
-Prof. Thomas Sowell ( Knowledge and Decisions)
So, it’s just that Socialism has not been tried by the right people.
Why do they not realize that the rest of us would have a say in this? Since the early 1900s, we have seen a lot of attempts at control; most failed for all the usual reasons – greed for Power over others and greed for money (like the Capitalists they accused of being the greedy ones). But they certainly decided to keep their positions by crushing everyone else, grinding down their hopes and dreams.
But what of those who aren’t in the top tier – what was their reaction?
As we have seen, all they want is to be able to make their own decisions for themselves and their family. That never disappears. Even within those countries where it is still in place, like Cuba, there are always those trying to escape.
And given that all the incentives to work hard are upside down, the believers at the top that think they can control everything, eventually ennui, and the “why bother with the charade?” attitudes wind further downward.
Combine the inability to manage and the unwillingness to carry out what is demanded, things slowly grind to a halt.
And then you see the Preference Cascade in the blink of an eye when the Iron Curtain came down after 70 years in Poland, East Germany, Russia, the Baltic states, and the Slavic nations.
The “Others” use of “Irish Democracy” plays a role in all of this. After all, and in the end, everyone gets a vote.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
