> the hallmark of any truly socialist government is that it spends too much money on unproductive investments -- because they evaluate investment on things other
So your means of identification of socialist government is that you don't agree with its valuations?
Perhaps you mean to say that without stringent focus on a numerical performance measurement, like size of budget deficit or kLOC, optimization theory breaks down. I don't see how that would be particular to any form of government. That said, communal ownership does suffer more here, because it's an attempt at moving past local maxima in the poorly-defined utility space. Perhaps Jesse Schell's point system for people would be a sufficient compromise.
The problem with borrowing in particular is that it leverages the assumption that your use for the money is valued by society. However, you can't nail down a worth and societies are fickle.
So your means of identification of socialist government is that you don't agree with its valuations?
Perhaps you mean to say that without stringent focus on a numerical performance measurement, like size of budget deficit or kLOC, optimization theory breaks down. I don't see how that would be particular to any form of government. That said, communal ownership does suffer more here, because it's an attempt at moving past local maxima in the poorly-defined utility space. Perhaps Jesse Schell's point system for people would be a sufficient compromise.
The problem with borrowing in particular is that it leverages the assumption that your use for the money is valued by society. However, you can't nail down a worth and societies are fickle.