Optimizing things in the USSR (2016)
Excellent post! Very well written an detailed in its analysis. Loved every part of it, especially in the end when the author speculates whether Central Planning could possibly work with the advances in technology in the future (TLDR: maybe).<p>This is actually pretty fascinating. If we reach a level of automation such that factories are completely automated, I wonder if the data that is gathered from all those factories, along with more powerful computers and algorithms in the future, would allow central planning to work better than no planning. Some of the problems mentioned by the author are caused simply by the data being wrong, because of lying factory managers: automated factories would eliminate that problem at least.<p>At the very least, I hope that in the future there will be a centrally planned economy managed by the government to provide a decent living standard to most citizens, while minimizing environmental impact. More productive or talented citizens would&#x2F;could choose to opt to earn more wealth and purchase from an open market.