The Core Fallacy of Central Planning

The fundamental fallacious assumption that all central planners make in the course of their divine intervention into our personal affairs is not that they are smarter than the average person or even that they are the smartest person alive.  Rather it is that they are smarter than all of us put together.  

Was bailing out GM a good idea?  Well maybe, maybe not, but "we" had ample opportunity to make investments in the company on our own through the stock market.  Perhaps investors chose not to do so for a reason - it wasn't a sound investment.  Instead, the geniuses in the federal government decided that they were smarter than the whole of the people and that they would force us to "invest" in GM's future.  

Should we invest in new forms of energy?  On an individual level investing in particular energy concerns may pay off handsomely and help the future of mankind immensely.  Unfortunately when the central planners decide where to spend our money, they do so based on  much less information and insight than our pooled individual efforts, and they base their decisions in whole or in part on political merits.  They may occasionally back into a good idea that pays off, but their historical record is pretty awful - think Soviet Union.  The fact is "we" shouldn't be investing in anything.  The government has no right or authority to plunder our savings to fund their pet projects.  What's worse they will never have the information or the skills to succeed at it, regardless of who is in office.  


A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain. -- Robert Heinlein