Sure. But these societies have, today, overcome that economic backwardness and industrialized (unless you're in the unenviable position of Moldova or Georgia or Uzbekistan -- regions that served an agricultural role in a country that no longer exists). So central planning has lost its appeal and, indeed, its point.
--- On Wed, 6/17/09, Wojtek Sokolowski <swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> But I do not think those standards apply. I do not
> think that the ultimate goal of planned economy was to
> produce consumer goods. In fact, these economies
> consciously restricted consumption. Instead, the
> ultimate goal was to overcome economic backwardness and
> facilitate accelerated development and industrialization
> (cf. Gerschenkron's work on economic backwardness) - or as
> we would say today, limit consumption and increase
> investment. By these standards, central planning
> performed quite well - far better than free markets would
> have done.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>