• Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    and this is basically what a planned economy is, instead of letting the market stumble around and hoping to god the solutions people arrive at are good, we just sit down and think through how we want things to be done and then organize people to implement it.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Yes, planning is a tool governments can use to influence the economy. Similarly, markets and monetary policies are tools as well. The trick is using the right tool for the right job, not creating religions out of hammers or chainsaws.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Planned economies don’t necessarily kill everyone one, but they are bad because they disguise the price signals even more. Meaning that, GDP is bad because it only includes certain things and excludes others ( household labor). Planned economies have no price signals, so you don’t know if what you’re doing works.

        Planned economies only measure quantities of goods, not quality. So you will see statistics like tons of wheat or steel produced. What quality wheat? What quality steel? That’s what prices tell you.

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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          9 months ago

          This is just asserting things as fact with no reasoning behind it, why would you need prices to determine if things are working? Do you use prices to determine if your food tastes good?

          • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            You’re not going to read this, but I might as well explain it.

            You are asking me to give a reason for the sky being blue, without looking outside. Just think about it for a minute. In general, higher quality things are more expensive. This isn’t about “taste” but higher quality products that the average buyer would agree on:

            A price signal is information conveyed to consumers and producers, via the prices offered or requested for, and the amount requested or offered of a product or service, which provides a signal to increase or decrease quantity supplied or quantity demanded.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_signal

            What you think tastes good doesn’t matter. Imagine there’s a shortage of something (oranges for example) due to a poor crop harvest. The price of oranges will rise when the market learns this information. This helps compensate farmers who lost part of their crop and signals to the average consumer that they should buy fewer oranges.

            In a normal competitive market, these prices decrease when supply increases to normal. The price signal tells the consumer they can buy more oranges again without them needing to consult a crop report.

            It also tells the producers and the government what people think about purchasing that product. If they like it, they pay for it. These signals can be distorted by lack of competition or market access issues, but are better than asking everyone “does the food taste good?”