1. There is an incredible amount of waste in the market as we know it. Thus planning has a great deal of leeway for error if it were only to match present performance.
2. Markets tap virtually nothing of what people are capable of accomplishing. Planning has the potential (not the certainty) of tapping into the potential of what Fourier called passionate labor, and elevating what society can accomplish.
By the way, the forest fires here are horrible. Visibility is virtually nil. I may have to move to Los Angeles for the fresh air. The conservative property owners do not seem to be overly worried by the intrusion of government firefighters. No big call for privatization today.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> I don't think it's very fruitful to talk at a high
> level of abstraction. ... [We have] got to talk about the body or bodies
> doing the planning, the space of
> such planning (nation? region? locality?), the degree of precision
> (x% of social resources devoted to health, or the precise mix of
> band-aids and MRI machines), etc.
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901