> Building microwaves is not like handling libraries. To build the microwaves you have to coordinate the work of vastly different mining, design, electronics, and metallurgical industries, each employing huge numbers of people. Then you have quality control, so the microwaves work and don't set fire to things (centrally planned economies have notoriously sucked ass at this). Then you have to distribute the microwaves to various optimal points where people want microwaves, in sufficient amounts and at appropriate intervals. Then you need a feedback mechanism so you know people are happy with the microwaves.
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> In libraries, on the other hand, the books are already produced. All you have to do is order them.
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Not just the books - everything is already produced. The computers, building materials, furniture.
When the Portland, Ore. library board wants to build a new library, it doesn't have to recalculate a 10-million-by-10-million line national input-output matrix to determine which alternative users of cement elsewhere in the country will have to consume less to accommodate the library's need for a new building.
SA