Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

What Efficiency Requires 127values count, requires, among other things, a detailed allocationof participants to each of countless specialized occupationsand jobs. Social scientists follow Adam Smith andthe sociologist Émile Durkheim in finding specialization ofroles—that is, division of labor—to be a fundamental sourceof efficiency. But sometimes they forget to say, perhaps becausethey regard it as obvious, that specializations are efficientonly if adapted to human wants and to each other. Aspecialization in lens-grinding is not efficient if no onemakes glass, nor is a specialization in incantations amongpeople who do not practice them. Not any division of laborwill do.BurdensTechnological efficiency—getting more output from agiven input—might be called getting something for nothing.Beyond such bonus opportunities, the pursuit of aspirationsproceeds through allocations in the face of scarcity:not enough to go around. To produce more of one valuedperformance or object means putting up with less of someothers. More medical care, fewer lawyers. If there is morelabor in industry, there is less labor in agriculture.Every allocation of a scarce good or service is burdened—toget something of value, something of value hasto be forgone, given up. In all societies, everyone from privatecitizen to chief executive confronts endless burdenedchoices. Moonlighting aside, choosing one job precludesthe benefits of another. Because our incomes are limited,spending on one assortment of consumer goods precludesenjoying others. For an entrepreneur, choosing one set of inputsprecludes choosing others that also would be useful.Collective choice is no less burdened. A central authority’s