One example of this is the Toyota Just-in-time system, where i believe they have a number of suppliers, some of them mom and pop producers in a basement or loft somewhere, that are gathered up and delivered to the factory as needed.<p>And i think you find a structure somewhat similar on Germany as well, where quite a bit of the parts manufacturing is done by smaller companies dotted around the nation.<p>As for traditional economic textbooks being wrong by ignorance, no surprises there. Check out Steve Keen&#x27;s book on the topic, Debunking Economics.<p>Also, as best i can tell the soviet system was pretty much a perversion of what Marx was musing about back in the day. I think he even told Lenin that the latter was barking up the wrong tree.