Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

130 What To Make of Itfor efficiency is inescapable: values or benefits to be receivedmust be compared with burdens, costs, or values forgone.When costs are unknown, decision making is renderedirrational in the extreme. You do not dare accept an offer ofa desired cellular phone if you have no knowledge of whatyou will be asked to give up if you accept it. As an entrepreneuryou cannot decide on the size of your labor force if youhave no information on what you must give up in return.Centralists’ problems are the same, but magnified. Theycannot rationally decide, say, on plans for more rail transportwithout first knowing the many possible reductions ofother kinds of production that would be necessary to makeit possible, and knowing as well the value of each.And, again, what has to be given up—the burden orcost—depends on what options are open for effecting thechoice. There is no one correct statement of cost when aperson, an official, or a whole society chooses more bread.What the cost will be depends on the means by which morebread can be had. The cost of bread to an official or an entrepreneurwill depend on whether bakers have to be paid orcan be commanded, their own preferences simply disregardedas irrelevant to an evaluation.That producing an appropriate combination of productsis difficult and requires cost information comes as a surpriseto some people. They think it obvious that peopleneed food, shelter, education, medical care, transport, andrecreation. No problem, then, for any society: simply producethem. The question facing a society, however, is notwhether to produce them—of course they are needed andshould be produced. The question is how much of each toproduce. Less or more? Should 5 or 20 or 40 percent of the