Economic Planning and Computers.

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8. I've never read anything on this topic.

But I work in a field that is more or less "centrally planned"--our public school system.

We have computers. Some things are more efficient, but other things are horrible with them. I think computers can be like that old cliche', when all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like a nail. Issues should be evaluated on the basis of what they truly need and it just shouldn't be assumed that anything can be fixed if you just throw more computers at it.

(Note: I'm not a technophobe. I lurve the internet and have a smartphone and do social media to the extent that I can, considering that I'm aging out of the demographic most of these things are aimed at.)

I think the best thing that computers are for in a centrally planned system are better ordering and inventory control via scanning bar-code systems. I think they would be good for conferences and communication too, but it would be necessary to get all regions up to an excellent standard with uniform quality.

edit to add: I think the idea that a centrally planned economy was inefficient under socialism isn't really true anyway. I don't have numbers at my fingers, but I doubt that many of the troubles any of them encountered was from central planning.