[Marxism] Interesting articles on economic modelling.

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@gmail.com>]

The problem wasn't the lack of computational power. Cockshott and Cottrell
have demonstrated that mathematically and Mandel theoretically. The former
estimated the number of calculations needing to be made and match it to
existing computer power. The latter explained that only a certain number of
decisions need to be made at each level of the hierarchy of decision making,
i.e. you don't need one supercomputer making all the quadrillions of
decisions about discrete goods and individuals in an economy.
Which gets to the reason the Soviet Union never had efficient planning, and
could never even use efficiently the computer power it did have: the
overcentralization of decisions, combined with the bureaucratic incentives
which ensured inaccurate information flowing up and down the chain.
Besides (and this part I'm not as familiar with), my impression is that by
the time Soviet economists advocating using computers and advanced
mathematical techniques for planning, they were also leaning toward more
market incentives (early 1960s during the Liebermann reforms), as opposed to
using computers for a unified but decentralized and democratic planning
structure.
Again, someone should do a study of the Chilean experience, brief as it was.
---------------------------------------------------
Anyone knows to what extent the Soviet Union used actual, grounded
scientific planning? Thinking of _Towards a New Socialism_ it would appear
that large-scale planning was impossible with the computational resources of

the time at a decent level of granularity, but I'd like to know what
actually was done and to what extent it functioned.
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