Anyone who isn’t a communist college professor hippie can tell you that central planning doesn’t work. To the extent that the government shackles a market, quality plummets and prices skyrocket. Inversely, when a market is left free, you get more options at different price points, faster innovation, and better safety measures.
One would think that with all the evidence and theory at our disposal, all variants of central planning would have died out long ago -- but no. Right now, we have centrally-planned education, health, agriculture, and energy, which, incidentally, are areas that are notorious for high prices, short supply, and low quality.
On the other side of room, some relatively free areas of the economy are: kitchen knives, computers, and cake. Note the wide variety in price, quality, and design.
Maybe some day we’ll have a totally free market; one where the only thing that the government does is kick hooligans, decapitate invading hordes, and adjudicate the occasional lawsuit. When that day comes, I imagine that we’d have so much innovation going on that we’d just be flooded with cheap and excellent products from all industries. Learning a new skill, no matter how dry and technical, would be as engaging as playing a well-made computer game. Getting a heart transplant would be as cheap as buying a new phone. And we would be able to eat chocolate mousse all day without getting fat.
Right now, what we have is a mixed economy. School is mostly boring, and occasionally practical. If you need a new heart, say your farewells to at least one arm and one leg. And perhaps, most tragic of all, is the fact that you have to make a choice between decent health and amazing cake.
How do we bridge the gap between here and there? How do we go from “Stupid school” to “Wow school?” From “Can’t pay for a new heart” to “Hey check out my new iHeart?” From “I love/hate cake” to “I love/love cake?”