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Samuelson on the USSR - why did he get it so wrong?

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Comments

  • #32
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 6,176 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    Yeah, but it's the future, and cameras are everywhere. Even little robot ones that look like flies. People who engage in shadow market activities get sent to a Mars penal colony. There is no escape. :D

    Anyway, my point is that sufficiently advanced technology would mean that a command system could efficiently work. If that is true, there would be little need for a shadow market.

    I personally (and with little evidence really) believe that anyone who thinks a command economy could work out is missing the point on why the Sovs failed. And is probably reading too much work by Lucas!


  • #33
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    Yeah, I'm talking about everyone having a blackberry thing on their wristwatch and paying for every transaction with it and it being fed to a supercomputer which calculates all the allocations of capital and so on. Civil liberties out the window, but all I'm saying is that the system could function.

    And makes large assumptions about ergodicity, which Samuelson would be proud of. Also even if you're assuming that such data were made available, I see little reason to assume that a central planner would make use of it/innovate better than the invisible hand.


  • #34
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    Deleted User wrote: »
    I personally (and with little evidence really) believe that anyone who thinks a command economy could work out is missing the point on why the Sovs failed. And is probably reading too much work by Lucas!

    Well, you know I am talking about information, so what am I missing?


  • #35
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 6,176 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    Well, you know I am talking about information, so what am I missing?

    The inherent animal spirits - the ghosts in the machine if you will.

    **** - I've just outed myself as a Sci-fi Keynesian.


  • #36
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    Time Magazine wrote: »
    Also even if you're assuming that such data were made available, I see little reason to assume that a central planner would make use of it/innovate better than the invisible hand.

    Ah, but I am not assuming a human central planner. I am talking about a supercomputer. Say, five hundred years from now. It can handle all the information provided and allocate optimal bundles, so to speak.


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  • #37
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    Deleted User wrote: »
    The inherent animal spirits - the ghosts in the machine if you will.

    **** - I've just outed myself as a Sci-fi Keynesian.

    Meh, what do we need humans for anyway...


  • #38
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 6,176 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    Ah, but I am not assuming a human central planner. I am talking about a supercomputer. Say, five hundred years from now. It can handle all the information provided and allocate optimal bundles, so to speak.

    But then you are assuming a central utility function. Good luck with that..


  • #39
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    Deleted User wrote: »
    But then you are assuming a central utility function. Good luck with that..

    It's the future. I can do anything I want. :P


  • #40
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 6,176 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    It's the future. I can do anything I want. :P

    This is what you are looking for.


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