…an a little more advanced look at economics, but it’s a good read.
This is a little more advanced than econ 101, so I gave it a higher number.
This article discusses the rationality of planned economic order (socialism) vs the market process (free-market) and their means of using resources efficiently.
Interesting read.
Economics and the Calculation Problem
By Alex Salter
Can a rationally planned economic order outperform the market process as a means of using resources efficiently? This is the central question behind one of the most important debates in the history of economic thought. Its answer has profound implications for the material well-being of societies.
By the early 1900s economists were in broad agreement on the free-exchange system’s effectiveness in bringing about an efficient use of resources. Despite this, the system did not want for enemies. Marx and his disciples disparagingly called it “the capitalist mode of production,” though the word “capitalist” actually derived from free-market critics of mercantilism. Dissidents accused the system of leading to socially detrimental outcomes in the form of market power wielded by large businesses and recurring cycles of boom and bust. Critics maintained that these shortcomings were the inevitable result of an “anarchic” system of production. However, if the means of production were brought under rational control, these deficiencies could be avoided. Combined with expert management, state socialism—the system characterized in theory by collective ownership of the means of production—would result in increased material abundance and a more socially just distribution of wealth.
Truth, Lies and In Between 