the.com/command economy
Capitalism's opposite: one planner's spreadsheet replaces a million people's haggling.
means An economic system where the government, not supply-and-demand haggling, decides what gets produced, how much, and at what price.
from 'Command' traces back to Latin commandare — 'to entrust, to order' — from com- (thoroughly) plus mandare (to commit, command), the root that also gives us 'mandate.' 'Economy' comes from Greek oikonomia, 'household management' (oikos, house + nomos, managing/law). The phrase itself is a 20th-century coinage, popularized during the Cold War to label Soviet-style planning — pairing the old idea of a household run by rules with the newer, blunter idea of a household run by orders from the top.
- who decides
- the state sets prices, not supply and demand
- classic example
- soviet five-year plans, often missing by years
- upside
- can mobilize resources fast, like wartime production
- downside
- shortages and surpluses, since nobody's guessing demand well