And are there many reasons to believe that application of central planning isn’t getting more and more precise over time?
MM does not oppose central planning. His idea of a good state is to hire Steve Jobs and make him a dictator (or dictator’s minister). Supposedly Steve Jobs is smart enough to prescribe central planning where central planning works better, and prescribe free market where free market works better, and measure the efficiency of both.
On the other hand, a democratic government decides between central planning and free market based on the popular opinion, which is based on professors’ advice, which is driven by their desire to get more grant money. This leads to a choosing a policy not because it gives the best results, but because it is the best topic for writing papers about. For example: nobody really understands Keynesian economics, probably because it does not really work, which allows professors to publish many papers about it, which makes it popular among professors, and journalists (with some hyperbole here).
Essentially: Central planning as done in democracy is imprecise because academia introduces systematic biases into central planning. A non-democratic ruler could avoid this bias.
The whole thing seems to hinge on the arbitrariness of professors’ intellectual leanings. How do we know they are so arbitrary? If you polled all the economics professors of major universities in the US, would their outlook confirm MM’s argument? Or is his data obsolete, based on a stereotype?
I don’t model academia as having a single bias. In my experience, it is a bunch of subcultures—for instance, economics professors tend to love libertarianism, and sociology professors tend to hate it. I have been “informed” from time to time that my university education was nothing but left-wing propaganda, although I don’t recall much mention of politics on my physics course.
Another thing that is peculiar about this argument is the relative lack of emphasis on the influence of familt, church, etc on people’s thinking. If the tertiary education sector is so influential on the US, why aren’t most US citizens believers in evolution?
Whilst imposing plenty of their own, eg Grab The Money and Run, Impose My Religion on Everyone, Trees Are More Interesting to Talk to than People, etc, etc.
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MM does not oppose central planning. His idea of a good state is to hire Steve Jobs and make him a dictator (or dictator’s minister). Supposedly Steve Jobs is smart enough to prescribe central planning where central planning works better, and prescribe free market where free market works better, and measure the efficiency of both.
On the other hand, a democratic government decides between central planning and free market based on the popular opinion, which is based on professors’ advice, which is driven by their desire to get more grant money. This leads to a choosing a policy not because it gives the best results, but because it is the best topic for writing papers about. For example: nobody really understands Keynesian economics, probably because it does not really work, which allows professors to publish many papers about it, which makes it popular among professors, and journalists (with some hyperbole here).
Essentially: Central planning as done in democracy is imprecise because academia introduces systematic biases into central planning. A non-democratic ruler could avoid this bias.
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I don’t model academia as having a single bias. In my experience, it is a bunch of subcultures—for instance, economics professors tend to love libertarianism, and sociology professors tend to hate it. I have been “informed” from time to time that my university education was nothing but left-wing propaganda, although I don’t recall much mention of politics on my physics course.
Another thing that is peculiar about this argument is the relative lack of emphasis on the influence of familt, church, etc on people’s thinking. If the tertiary education sector is so influential on the US, why aren’t most US citizens believers in evolution?
By some metrics a slight majority of people in the US accept evolution, but your basic point is sound.
Whilst imposing plenty of their own, eg Grab The Money and Run, Impose My Religion on Everyone, Trees Are More Interesting to Talk to than People, etc, etc.