Command Economy Failures

The idea of a Command Economy, centrally planned by the finest minds of a nation, regulated by impartial and ethical regulators and inspectors, has been a hallmark of good Socialists everywhere.  These are the most regulated markets in the world.

And everywhere it has been tried it has been an utter failure.  And the defense of good Socialists everywhere is, "It hasn't worked because the right people aren't in charge."

Which is complete and utter BS.  There is no one smart enough, clever enough, and wise enough to plan something as complex as a national economy.  The only way to get enough brain power together is to involve EVERYONE in the marketplace.  And once everyone has their piece of the planning pie, you have in essence a "free market" economy.

Why don't people buy Russian Sports cars?  Because there is really no such thing.  If you want a sports car you have to get it from a country that lacks a command economy.  No bureaucrat worth their salt would allow something as "frivolous" as a Corvette or Lamborghini to be manufactured over twenty or thirty craptastic commuter cars.

Now the failures of the free market (human nature) are also completely evident in the Command Economy.  In Russia there were several markets.  The "Public Market", "Black Market", "Political Privileged Market", and the "Military Market" which had various degrees of both quality and availability.

Let us compare the "military market."
Who made better tanks, the Free world or commie world?  Free World.
Who grew more wheat?  Free world.
Who made better jet fighters?  (it was neck and neck for a while) but it was the Free World.

We don't need to compare the "public market" do we?  In the free world the supermarket won't go without toilet paper on the shelves for six months.  In Soviet Russia, it happened.

The Free Market is the same mechanism of action that allows Open Source Software to succeed, many eyes looking at problems connected to many brains thinking about problems.  In a Command Economy you have many fewer eyes and many fewer brains.

In the end the Command Economy lacks innovation and is constantly playing catch up to the free markets of the world.  China saw explosive economic growth by backing away from the command economy model.  This is not rocket surgery.

But as I wrote previously, a truly free market is a very dangerous place.  Here in these United States we have neither a command economy or free market system.  We have a very meddlesome government that is almost constantly rewriting the rules or stepping in to stop "too big to fail" companies from succumbing to consequences of their own immoral behavior.