[eru]

> The minuet you think Central planning can override natural market forces you run into much bigger problems that usually end in catastrophe for the people you were trying to 'help'.

Corporations are central planning. Just on a smaller scale. (Though, companies like the old IBM were bigger then some small countries.)

[xraystyle]

> Corporations are central planning. Just on a smaller scale.

No, they're not. Corporations plan their production and allocate their resources based on market information within their industry in an attempt to capitalize on the market signals they observe.

Central planning is a process by which a central government attempts to control and direct the output of a nation's economy by deciding what to produce and when, ignoring market signals.

These are vastly different concepts.

[eru]

Not so different, see eg http://www.economist.com/node/17730360 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm in general.

eli_gottlieb sibling-comment is spot on.

[eli_gottlieb]

Yeah, but they used to be forms of planning organizations that couldn't drag all of society with them when they fucked up.