Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The "we" that knows central planning doesn't work and the "we" inclined toward central planning are the same?

If so, I've not met this group of people, but I'd like to share your first point with them because I tend to agree.



If central planning didn't work, why does every corporation under the sun use it internally? Why don't they just let everyone do what they want, and then sue eachother when it doesn't result in great outcomes?


Central planning does work at small scales. Everyone "centrally plans" their own life. Can you imagine doing it any other way?

The issue is that as the context expands, we lose the ability to make accurate predictions. To some extent we can't even predict our own lives although we try our best. When you expand that to the size of a corporation it's mostly just guessing. Corporations fail all of the time. When we expand that to a society, we are just guessing for everything but the most simple of predictions.


What is the average age of a corporation?

I say that as someone who actually thinks a little central planning is good.


Clarify that, please? Maybe you mean "most corporations are short-lived due to excess central planning", or then again "most corporations are full of crusty old dudes who love the tradition of central planning", or ..?


I may believe both of those things, but no that's not actually what I meant. I simply meant look at the stats for how long corporations actually live. Are we sure that's how we want to structure our government?


Some corps live 1 year and others have been around for 150+ and they all use central planning. This seems unrelated.


Without comparing the management styles of different corporations it's difficult to say if it's related or not. For example, it's possible that long-lived corporations are run in a more laissez-faire style compared to ones that fail.


Interestingly, one marker for longevity is distributed ownership, aka profit share or co-op structures, or family run businesses. Co-ops specifically have much longer longevity than traditional corporations.


Is that a useful metric in a vacuum like that?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: