Comments for A Burmese reminder at http://adamsmith.org , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://adamsmith.org Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:29:49 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://adamsmith.org/blog/economics/a-burmese-reminder-200805141374/#comment-223 China has just had a natural disaster. It is still largey centralised is it not? Private property in China does not have the security it has in the UK. And yet the Chinese govt has responded in excellent fashion to the recent earthquake. Far better for instance than the American govt's response (thru FEDRA) to Katrina which was widely condemned. How would you explain China's success given your comment that centralised country's " ... are unable to deal with natural disasters for much the same reason: information is slow to get to the decision-making centre, slow to be processed by the bureaucracy, and slow to get acted on". Surely this is just a case of how well managed and organised a govt is. Burma was rubbish but the Chinese are better at it. Hayek's knowldedge/information argument is very limited in its usefulness here surely. Its too generalised. I may have misseed your point so please explain if I have. - Not an Economist Thu, 15 May 2008 07:13:26 +0100 http://adamsmith.org/blog/economics/a-burmese-reminder-200805141374/#comment-216 This is actually a planning disaster - you shouldn't build so many houses at sea level on a coastal flood plain - see also Canvey Island, New Orleans, Tsunami in Indonesia/Thailand a couple of years ago (earthquake) and a century before that (Krakatoa) etc etc. - Mark Wadsworth Wed, 14 May 2008 12:33:27 +0100 http://adamsmith.org/blog/economics/a-burmese-reminder-200805141374/#comment-215 Quote: "information is slow to get to the decision-making centre, slow to be processed by the bureaucracy, and slow to get acted on" In addition to these valid points one can add that as the information flows up the bureaucratic chain, so information is lost causing incorrect decisions to be made. This loss is caused by having to compress a page of writing into a paragraph, and then that paragraph into a sentence. Each boss has to process the work of 10 (say) minions and then in his turn pass a precis upwards to his boss who has to do the same reduction. This lossy compression is intrinsic to any hierachical system. Hence the validity of any final decision by 'the great leader' is going to depend upon whether critical information has been winnowed out on its upward journey. This system theory viewpoint has its uses. You can start to see why there are limits on the size of any sucessful extended enterprise - eg the size of the Roman empire (it got too large to react in a timely fashion to external events), and many others with a similar intrinsic structure. - Steve Giess Wed, 14 May 2008 10:43:39 +0100