{"id":19969,"date":"2016-04-15T12:40:58","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T17:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19969"},"modified":"2016-04-15T12:40:58","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T17:40:58","slug":"why-all-central-planning-is-doomed-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19969","title":{"rendered":"Why All Central Planning Is Doomed to Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"art-postmetadataheader\">\n<h3 class=\"art-postheader\"><a title=\"Permanent Link to Why All Central Planning Is Doomed to Fail\" href=\"http:\/\/www.acting-man.com\/?p=44336\" rel=\"bookmark\">Why All Central Planning Is Doomed to Fail\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"art-postheadericons art-metadata-icons\"><strong>Positivist Delusions<\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"art-postcontent\">\n<p><em>[ed. note: this article was originally published on March 5 2013 \u2013 Bill Bonner was on his way to his ranch in Argentina, so here is a classic from the archives]\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re still thinking about how so many smart people came to believe things that aren\u2019t true. Krugman, Stiglitz, Friedman, Summers, Bernanke, Yellen \u2013 all seem to have a simpleton\u2019s view of how the world works.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-44341\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acting-man.com\/blog\/media\/2016\/04\/Simpletons-1024x204.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.acting-man.com\/blog\/media\/2016\/04\/Simpletons-1024x204.jpg 1024x, http:\/\/www.acting-man.com\/blog\/media\/2016\/04\/Simpletons-300x60.jpg 300x, http:\/\/www.acting-man.com\/blog\/media\/2016\/04\/Simpletons-768x153.jpg 768x\" alt=\"Simpletons\" width=\"700\" height=\"139\" \/>A bunch of famous people with a simpleton view of how the world works\u2026who not only seriously think the economy can and should be \u201cplanned\u201d, but arrogantly believe they are the ones who should do it. It\u2019s a bit like the crazy guy who doesn\u2019t know he\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n<p>They believe they can manipulate the future and make it better. Not just for themselves\u2026 but also for everyone else. Where did such a silly idea come from?<\/p>\n<p>After the Renaissance, Aristotelian logic came to dominate Western thought. It was essentially a forerunner of positivism \u2013 which is supposedly based on objective conditions and scientific reasoning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGive me the facts,\u201d says the positivist, confidently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me apply my rational brain to them. I will come up with a solution!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beyond the Herald\u2019s Cry<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is fine, if you are building the Eiffel Tower or organizing the next church supper. But positivism falls apart when it is applied to schemes that go beyond the reach of the \u201cherald\u2019s cry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what Aristotle said: Only a small community would work. Because only in a small community would all the people share more or less the same information and interests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why All Central Planning Is Doomed to Fail\u00a0 Positivist Delusions [ed. note: this article was originally published on March 5 2013 \u2013 Bill Bonner was on his way to his ranch in Argentina, so here is a classic from the archives]\u00a0 We\u2019re still thinking about how so many smart people came to believe things that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5728,68,6190,125,303,451,460,3284,2586,534,614,3650],"class_list":["post-19969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-acting-man","tag-ben-bernanke","tag-bill-bonner","tag-central-planning","tag-fed","tag-janet-yellen","tag-joseph-stiglitz","tag-larry-summers","tag-milton-friedman","tag-monetary-policy","tag-paul-krugman","tag-us-federal-reserve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19970,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19969\/revisions\/19970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}