Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Too Little,Too Late 173In the game, one might say, the original allocation is arbitraryand makes no particular sense other than to start thegame. In the market system, the original allocation to eachperson is given. It is what one “owns” together with certainliberties and prohibitions with respect to what one can dowith one’s own labor. It is a mistaken distinction. Whateach person “owns” is a result of allocative processes—thatis, historical and current social processes. They have createdand from time to time reshaped the right called ownershipor property. That allocation is not, like the Himalayas,just “there;” it is a product of human activity, and no less sothan the allocations achieved by market transactions. Thesame is true for those rights that bear the name of liberty orfreedom. That people enjoy returns from their own labor ispossible only because people make prior determinationsthat allocate liberties to them.Let me make the point in another way. Imagine twomethods of achieving efficient choices on allocations of assetsand skills, as well as on products and services to be producedwith them. In one the state does not allocate productiveassets like land and capital to individual persons orprivate organizations. Intending to achieve efficiency in theuse of assets to satisfy its citizens, state officials allocatethem to various lines of production they plan. The officialsmay achieve an allocation and production plan widely regardedas efficient; or, given the magnitude of their task,they may fail. In either case they have approached efficientchoice on the allocation and use of the society’s resources asan integrated problem.In the other, officials do not want to try to achieve an efficientallocation or production plan, perhaps believing thatthe task lies beyond their competence. So they simply assignproductive assets to members of the society and leave