Central Planning

I continue to marvel over the naiveté of otherwise intelligent people when it comes to the reality of what a planned economy would bring. Are people gullible or merely grabbing for power?

I liked this excerpt from my reading today in F. A. Hayek’s ‘The Road to Serfdom”. I share it with you because it really rings true.

“…We all think that our personal order of values is not merely personal but that in a free discussion among rational people we would convince the others that ours is the right one. The lover of the countryside who wants above all that it’s traditional appearance should be preserved and that the blots already made by industry on it’s fair face should be removed, no less than the health enthusiast who wants all the picturesque but insanitary old cottages cleared away, or the motorist who wishes the country cut up by big motor roads, the efficiency fanatic who desires the maximum of specialization and mechanization no less than the idealist who for the development of personality wants to preserve as many independent craftsman as possible all know that their aim can be achieved only by planning, and they all want planning for that reason. But, of course, the adoption of the social planning for which they clamor can only bring out the concealed conflict between their aims.”

Are people just so blinded by the hope of forcing others to adopt their values that they can’t see the inevitable conflict?

In the end, it will be the task of a centrally planned government to decide between opposing projects. Then it will quickly descend into a series of favors and a system of political pull being the main factor considered.