Triumph of Markets

From Zanecorpwiki

2010-02-16

Obviously the idea of "markets" have won the day over "central planning". Yet, it should always be remembered that this was not obvious. Those that argued for alternative systems were not foolish nor blind. They had many good arguments and many reasons to be skeptical of markets.

By the same token, we should not fall into the trap of thinking the struggle is done. It's clear we can say that for this stage of development, markets are the way to go, or planned economies as implemented in the 20th century are clearly inferior to the market economies of the 20th century in (almost?) every measurable way. Competition, and not design is where it's at.

But to think that the issue is closed is silly. It's like saying a gas powered car is clearly better than a horse drawn carriage so you shouldn't bother doing any transportation research ever again. Our current economic "best practices" are like most things a rung on an infinite ladder.