THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF WALMART: HOW THE WORLD'S BIGGEST CORPORATIONS ARE LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIALISM

摘要

One of the 'things' in Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Allen Lane, 2010) is "Despite the fall of communism, we are still living in planned economies". This striking claim is based on the observation that businesses plan their operations and a CEO is expected to be "a man (or a woman) with a plan" (emphasis in original). Chang notes that managers issue orders and that everybody in the firm is expected to work towards the same goal. The implication is that we should not fear central planning, at least in certain areas of the economy. This rather feeble argument hinges on the conceit that the most distinctive and objectionable aspect of socialist systems is the use of plans. There is, of course, more to planned economies than a plan. Amongst other things, they require a state-run monopoly, the abolition of the price mechanism and varying degrees of coercion. If the government's plan fails, the results are catastrophic for the nation. If the plan of a CEO fails, the results are only catastrophic for the business's employees and shareholders. Rival businesses with better plans will pick up the slack.