Central Problem of Central Planning

I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
--Tears for Fears

GMU Prof Walter Williams identifies the central problem of Obamacare or any centrally planned program for that matter. Effectively allocating resources to satisfy consumers requires more information processing capacity than any bureaucracy, no matter how intelligent its members, possesses.

In unhampered markets, producers must monitor prices, changes in consumer taste preferences, innovations, and hundreds of other variables. They must then process that information and nimbly respond to meet the needs of the market. Consumers, not producers, hold the keys to market success. It is the producer's job to listen, learn, and adapt to market dynamics.

It is impossible for a remotely located planning board to approach the effectiveness of thousands of spontaneous, complex, and creative actions made by local actors in pursuit of satisfying consumer needs.

Prof Williams wonders whether DC planners are too arrogant to grasp that fact, or whether they simply don't care because they have the power to coerce.

Either way, the outcome is the same: lower standard of living.