Yes, a Planned Economy Can Actually Work
Mega-companies like Amazon and Walmart are already using large-scale central planning. We can wield that tool for good. Socialists need to renew our embrace of democratic planning and fight for a real alternative to capitalism.
A Walmart associate sorts merchandise in the back room at a Walmart Supercenter during the annual shareholders meeting event on May 31, 2018 in Rogers, Arkansas. Rick T. Wilking / Getty
A hundred years after the Russian Revolution, a specter is haunting the West — the specter of what the Economist newspaper recently christened millennial socialism.
But what exactly is meant by socialism this time around? Is it just a return of New Deal liberalism or Scandinavian social democracy? Is it public health care and strong unions? Is it a flowering of cooperatives — as Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell wants?
And above all, what is the role of the market versus economic planning in our alternative? This surely is where the workers’-council-manufactured rubber hits the state-built road?
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