Hacker News Reader

This is a great comment.

Taking this further, if big data can eradicate the consumer surplus, then maybe big data could make price controls more feasible. Maybe big data actually could make a command economy kinda work.

View on HN

There is a book called The People's Republic of Walmart about how "command economies" work in corporations, and why we couldn't have something similar in the general economy. I remain unconvinced, however, because the difference is that the amount of data you need is vast and often uncapturable, uncollectable. You basically have to know everything about everything, so markets are a better bottom up emergent simulation of supply and demand, hence why they work so well, at least in the aggregate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com