[hedgetrimmer]

Ping

[Sundog]

The Closest we will ever get to Perfect Knowledge.

cheers.

[Mark Felton]

The problem was not "imperfect" knowledge; the problem was lack of motivation to acquire "better" knowledge.

Capitalism in a free-market rewards those who improve their knowledge.

[Uncle Miltie]

"Perfect Knowledge" would, I suppose solve the problem of Communism. However, it must be perfect knowledge of everyones desires and priorities, maintained dynamically. So, if I want a Bud instead of a Miller this time, the Commie Bureaucrat must have that particular knowledge at the moment I think it.

When a world-wide super computer is wired into everyones brains, "Perfect Knowledge" will have been achieved and Communism may work. I hope to never live in that world.

In the mean time, all I gotta do is ask the bar tender for what I want, and BINGO! I gotta Bud.

Communism's use of "perfect knowledge" to plan everything is just an inefficient effort at eliminating my efficient judgment.

[fporretto]

The "perfect knowledge" canard seems unkillable. But that's not the reason central-planning / socialism is doomed. The problem is that in a division-of-labor (i.e., specialized) economy, people's economic decisions are only rational if they're premised on what other people want and are willing to pay for -- a subject on which "perfect knowledge" is impossible, because people's desires, their priorities, and the means to implement them are changing all the time.

Ludwig von Mises demolished the "perfect knowledge" conceit in his book Socialism. That was 1922. It would be nice if we could move on to some other rationalization for economic lunacy, after a mere eighty years. Sigh.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[r9etb]

The problem is not "perfect knowledge," or lack of it. After all, the shoemaker had perfect knowledge that he was to make size 11 shoes.

For all intents and purposes, the commissar's knowledge was "perfect" as well: he knew he wanted size 11 shoes, and it was illegal to counteract his decisions. (For now let's assume the commissar is honest and intelligent.)

The commissar probably had a size 9 shoe factory out there someplace, too, so theoretically the shoe needs would have been satisfied by the set of factories.

The real problem has to do with allowable responses to imperfect knowledge. For example, the commissar may not have knowm of the corrupt factory manager over at Size 9. Nor, perhaps, of the flood that disrupted the transport of size 6 shoes from the factory to the distribution points.

Given the freedom to respond, the Size 11 plant could have covered the size 9 shortfall. But the system didn't allow it.