The whole concept of planning seems to depend on some form of determinism. This determinism is implicit in the behavioral approach to psychology and is illustrated in experiments on animals. FULL ARTICLE by David Elton Trueblood
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/12353/the-fallacy-of-central-planning/
The Fallacy of Central Planning
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I doubt today’s central planners actually care whether or not they are helping the economy or not, and whether they are basing their actions on a sound intellectual foundation. They do not think about such things and they don’t care whether central planning leads to a wealthy society. Any intellectual arguments are banished into a few economist-courtesan academic papers or reports to legislative committees which nobody bothers to read and which are merely the formal sprinkling of holy water over acts of plunder. The scientific (or scientifistic) arguments contained in the unread economic papers are parodied into a kind of gibberish by public intellectuals such as Krugman, in which successive paragraphs barely hold together with logical consistency let alone successive columns. The arguments for central planning, if you could call them that, are as intellectual and interactive as monks droning an ancient Latin prayer.
At any given moment, as the taxes are being levied and the loot is being redistributed, the political leader is merely thinking about how to position himself to win the next election and head off any challenges to his party leadership. If he is a lame duck he is only thinking about his historical legacy as a humanitarian and his future employment on the consulting and speech-making circuits and will be focused on polishing those apples. The second-tier politicians are angling to make sure that the special interests who control and fund their re-election campaigns are well taken care of with pork and regulatory/legal favors, and some will also be trying to position themselves to eventually have a run at the leadership. The lower-level legislators and bureaucratic mandarins are angling to have influence over whatever pork and power is being distributed so that they can steer the loot toward the private parties to whom they are bound by bribes, kickbacks and promises of future considerations. The low-level bureaucratic drones are either on the make and trying to get noticed by zealously advancing their bosses’ interests, or else are jaded/apathetic and merely following orders.
The public moves along according to the dictates of stimulus or bailouts without thinking about what it represents and why it is done. They think about it as much as a cow worries about the ultimate origin of the feed that is dumped in his trough every day, whether it contains sufficient minerals and amino acids, and whether it has been produced ethically and sustainably. Of course when the feed stops magically appearing in the trough then a bit of thinking is bound to occur.
Perhaps the best plan for those who understand the bankruptcy of central planning would be to concentrate on finding and educating the members of the public who have experienced interruptions to the flow of fiat money into their troughs. I know that the many followers of mises.org will frequently show up on websites which discuss the recent financial calamities and put in arguments for Austrian economics, but maybe the heavy hitters of the LvMI would do better to focus on these openings rather than seeking to take on the brain-dead and widely ignored court intellectuals. Wherever there has been a massive wave of layoffs, bankruptcies, foreclosures and tuition hikes, that’s where the next ASC should be. It is the herd which must be headed off from running over the cliff, therefore it may be best to concentrate on influencing the herd and not the deaf and dumb herders.
I’ve never seen it said better.
Ruling a country is like cooking a fish—carefully. Forgetting or not caring about principles that lead logically to certain results, merely because the economy of a country is “large”, is a great error both morally and scientifically.
Thank you Mr. Henry.
It is a problem of scale, not economic system. No economic system can work for a population of 300 million people. Any system can work for a tribe or clan of several dozen adults. Most families, clans, and tribes are socialistic or plain dictatorships.
Our North West Indian tribes were very close to pure communism but worked well before white people messed them up. Their economy worked so well that status came from giving stuff away instead of accumulating stuff. google potlatch
Re: billwald,
Seems to work perfectly fine for other populations amounting to 3 billion. Why not 300 million? Which systems do you have in mind when asserting that “none work”?
That may well be. And?
Work well how?
Makes me wonder how do you think they got the stuff they were giving away. By conjuring?
Your tribe you are talking about was not communistic. You can’t give something away unless you own it. Also, most people would describe giving stuff away as a spending choice on status.
Altruism is not communism.
If the people around you help themselves to your stuff that is communism.
Well there is a large tribe in Washington DC trying this out on an ever larger scale. They’ve even gone from giving away other people’s stuff to giving away the stuff of people who haven’t even been born yet. But I wouldn’t say it’s going to work out so well.
I doubt today’s central planners actually care whether or not they are helping the economy or not, and whether they are basing their actions on a sound intellectual foundation. They do not think about such things and they don’t care whether central planning leads to a wealthy society.
I agree entirely. Central planning is not a fallacy. It’s a sophisticated con game. It’s a cynical lie, devised to placate people into submitting to slavery with minimal resistance.
This con game relies on two main devices — (1) it openly bribes people by telling them they will be on the receiving end of some of the booty, and (2) prevents any return to the older, freer system by promoting their economic dependence, so that people have real reasons to fear the removal of the central authority (i.e., the institutionalized theft system).
Let’s face facts: most people do not want property rights and market freedoms. They think they are better off with the system of thievery and slavery, and the reality is that, in the short term, many of them are.
Ohh Henry has a great point on where to focus the energies of the Mises big dogs. Go to the places that have been burned the worst by our system and educate. Places like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Detroit, Ohio, Chicago, anywhere in coastal California, etc. These are the places with large numbers of people ripe for the Austrian message.
The original central planning micromanagement idea has been superseded since long by a macro-management idea whereby masses are manipulated by ideological mass phenomena, from the Lusitania through Kuwait babies torn from incubators. Like one can trust even hardened criminals by and large to adhere to a codex of honour which does not permit to wrench a handbag from an elderly lady so one can trust the general indignation or the “love for the environment” to induce the masses to follow a certain predetemined political path. Hasn’t it worked wonderfully to denounce inflation but make sure “deflation ” is seen as an even graver danger to be avoided at all cost as to justify even the stupidest monetary and economic INFLATIONARY measures?
It’s not a “lapse of logic”. It’s called arrogant stupidity. Elton is being too polite here.
I don’t think it is necessary to try to determine the motives or attributes(or lack thereof) of the planners or the populace in this discussion. Too much time and effort is wasted on assessing the character of the central planners and not enough on the core issues (granted that people assume integrity in governments given world history is perplexing). Some planners may have the best intentions, Bernanke appears to be in this camp; he seems like a very nice, intelligent person that believes he knows better than markets (perhaps indicative of a serious flaw in his character). We come off as shrill when we attack them and not their positions.I think a hive is an interesting parallel. It is fascinating to consider the planner; advocating the construction of “less dense” affordable housing in a location where the multistory “project” currently stands (it had become an instant slum upon its completion) while considering the planner that came a generation before insisting that the then existing row of low density housing in that location should be demolished to make way for a new, highly amenitized, multistory building would provide better living standards to a greater number of people in a safer environment.Little or no consideration is given for the unintended consequences that will result from the new plan or the political momentum that will be added to central authority. Assumptions about determinism and human action will be made as though it is simple arithmetic with all variables fixed and known. The impacts on individuals involved with the manipulations, machinations and interventions will be ignored this time, as it they were last time.
“The tension may seem unfortunate, but it is good to remind ourselves that music cannot be played except on tight strings.”
Music can be played no strings attached by simply passing air through vent holes and tubes. It may also be played by vibrating metals or by clapping solids.
In fact, the best sound comes from the flame speaker which is soft and unrestricted untightened plasma through wich electricity flows.
Cybertarianism, where everyone plans for himself under the suggestions and expertise of artificial intelligence is the best way.
Free market capitalism and private property rights are the best way.
And if mankind would claim back his soul for himself instead of wanting to sacrifice it to Gods, he would have a better sense of direction which would help him better plan his actions.
Ohhh Henry wrote: “Any intellectual arguments are banished into a few economist-courtesan academic papers or reports to legislative committees which nobody bothers to read and which are merely the formal sprinkling of holy water over acts of plunder.”Very well put.
The central planner isn’t just evil or mislead but rather he is both -he is a corrupt good. I think Goethe gave a good model of how this happens: “…appointing himself its [reason's] only priest, he becomes more bestial than any beast.”
I read the blog and felt like I was not alone in my beliefs. I don’t feel that way often.
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