> Planned systems are OK at simply defined crash
> projects to which unlimited
> resources can be devoted. The Soviets had a handful
> of good products in
> machine tools, weapons systems, and the like. But
> you can't eat that stuff.
> Despite decades of efforts under Brezhnev, they
> failed to develop adequate
> consumer goods because you can't treat them like
> Kalashnikovs.
Justin, I haven't read those books that you mention but I will make it a point to do so. I am wondering if some sort of toyotaism (well, the "just in time", computerized, and "production on demand" aspects of it) would make such highly centralized planning obsolete in many cases. I will admit how that (or "centralized planning") would work with, say, agricultural products, seems problematic to me.
Look forward to your response.
Thanks, Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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