It's true that the ability to coordinate and harness human talent is the fundamental task of civilization, but I think the author is missing a step where they accurately link that to successful left wing policy. The author doesn't appear to address counterexamples.
Using his own 'man landing on the moon' scenario. Why did the USA beat the USSR to the moon? Then subsequently pull ahead technologically? Was the USA in the 1950-1980s more or less left wing than the USSR? Was East Germany more or less 'left wing' than West Germany?
Has China's swift rise coincided with a shift to the left in their economic system or a shift to allow market forces?
>I am writing this on a laptop produced by a chain of activity stretching across the planet. Thousands of people were involved in turning sand, rare metals, aluminium ore, petroleum and electrical energy into the slab of silicon, metal and plastic sitting in front of me. Engineers designed its processors. Miners extracted its materials. Factory workers assembled its components. Software developers wrote the systems that allow me to use it. No single person knows how to turn the raw materials into a computer. Once again, no one needs to.
No one needs to, because it's much easier to coordinate a market economy according to self-interest than it is to centrally plan every step of the process. "I, Pencil" is usually a defense of market economies, and their ability to coordinate the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Pencil
Using his own 'man landing on the moon' scenario. Why did the USA beat the USSR to the moon? Then subsequently pull ahead technologically? Was the USA in the 1950-1980s more or less left wing than the USSR? Was East Germany more or less 'left wing' than West Germany?
Has China's swift rise coincided with a shift to the left in their economic system or a shift to allow market forces?
>I am writing this on a laptop produced by a chain of activity stretching across the planet. Thousands of people were involved in turning sand, rare metals, aluminium ore, petroleum and electrical energy into the slab of silicon, metal and plastic sitting in front of me. Engineers designed its processors. Miners extracted its materials. Factory workers assembled its components. Software developers wrote the systems that allow me to use it. No single person knows how to turn the raw materials into a computer. Once again, no one needs to.
No one needs to, because it's much easier to coordinate a market economy according to self-interest than it is to centrally plan every step of the process. "I, Pencil" is usually a defense of market economies, and their ability to coordinate the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Pencil