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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 9 Aug \ on: The Neo-Communist Mentality ideasfromtheedge
Honestly, IMO the biggest failure in the fight against communism has been the lack of focus on the failures of central planning. With Ludwig von Mises "Economic Calculation Problem" the socialist system is exposed.
People get caught up in the moral aspects of communism and honestly its mostly a distraction. The same critiques can be made of all top down systems that are statist in nature.
Socialism/Communism biggest problem is the calculation problem. Here's a brief summary.
The calculation problem in socialism refers to the alleged inability of a socialist economy to make rational economic decisions and allocate resources efficiently without the guidance of market prices. This concept was first proposed by Ludwig von Mises in the 1920s and has since been debated among economists.
Key Arguments
  1. Lack of Market Prices: In a socialist economy, the means of production are owned and controlled by the state or collective entities, rather than private individuals. Without private ownership, there is no mechanism to establish market prices for capital goods and intermediate products. This makes it impossible to calculate the costs and benefits of different production methods and allocate resources efficiently.
  2. Inability to Value Resources: Socialism lacks a system to value resources and goods in terms of their scarcity and utility. Without market prices, it is difficult to determine the opportunity costs of alternative uses of resources, making it challenging to make informed decisions about production and investment.
  3. Central Planning Inefficiencies: Central planning attempts to allocate resources through administrative decisions, which can lead to inefficiencies and misallocations. Without market prices, planners lack the necessary information to make optimal decisions, and their choices may be based on incomplete or inaccurate data.
I don't think Mises ideas are well understood. Politicians of all stripes seem to ignore the lessons and while I OFTEN here people in the US criticize Communism I rarely hear rational critiques that use logic. Its often a cartoonist criticism.
The fact is, central planners even if they were the smartest people and the most moral people would fail. They just can't know what is required to know. But I think this is a clue to why this critique of socialism isn't used. All politicians are in favor of some sort of centralization and lack humility. There are rare exceptions to this like Ron Paul but most just desire to grab the "Ring of Power" and use it for "good".
They do not accept that the market is the hive mind that they will never be able to recreate. It is literally the only real democracy. Freedom is the radical idea that statists fear most.
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @drlh 9 Aug
Also I'd add the argument that in order to reach the communist utopia you need to surrender your right of property to commune. But you can't just throw away or take one liberty from someone without crushing the others, and it doesn't matter which be it the economic liberty, free speech, free travel etc.. You need to enforce, or else the other fellow human won't care about the rule. And communism requires ALL to surrender the economic liberty.
I like the affirmation of Hayek that the evil roots of nazism is the socialism, even though one is far left and other far right. Both requires the liberty sacrifice, but the difference is in the goal.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Aug
I completely agree except I have always had a very hard time actually believing nazism was right wing. It has always seemed far more centrist but authoritarian. I think nazism breaks the right/left. And I'm not alone in this. You need more of compass x/y to really understand the various ideologies.
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