Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

274 Thinking About Choicesman beings do not possess perfect information and unlimitedanalytical capacity. It is because they do not that thesecond form can accomplish—not ideally, but comparatively—whatthe first cannot.Discriminating scope. A final distinction between thetwo methods of planning is in scope. Market-system plannersare not God-like in the scope of their controls over society,and they routinely count on the market system tocarry most of the burden of social organization. Despitetheir frequent pride in their plans, their efforts are thosethat are typically only marginal amendments to—marginalreshapings of—the results of the market-system coordination.Society loads on conventional central planners all themajor allocative decisions on what is to be produced and,for each line of production, with which resources. In contrast,market-system planning limits central decisions onproduction to those lines of production for which a centraldecision is, in the eyes of citizens or their rulers, superior todecision by consumers in the market. On this point alone,the latter kind of production planning is simpler and moremanageable—and less intrusive—than the alternative form.Not spread so thin, planners or decision makers can betterand with less bruising do whatever they do.Note, too, that in any line of production in which themarket planners see no reason to plan, their choice to remaininactive does not leave a void or disorder, as would afailure to act in the alternative look-alike system. It leavesan existing market system operating. If they choose to subsidizemass transit, it is not because without their decisiontransit will come to a stop but because they believe they canimprove an ongoing transport system. The transit systemcan operate without their decisions; the trains do not waitfor them.