Brexit shows the perils of a planned economy

One of the remain arguments about Brexit is that it’s going to be a terrible disruption to how the world works - or that part of it that concerns the UK that is. It’s also true, unlike some other arguments being bandied about. The thing is though, this is also the argument against a planned economy in the first place.

Think through what that argument is. We’ve got so much work to do, so much administrative gumph to work through, that we’d better not make the change in the first place. It’s all just too complicated, see? Butwhat would a planned economy be? An even greater amount of administrative gumph meaning that we’d never be able to change anything.

Not changing anything in the face of changing technology is also known as progressively becoming poorer than we ought to be. Thus a planned economy is contraindicated on the grounds that it would indeed make us poorer.

Take this about medicines:

Few of the recipients of the millions of prescriptions dispensed every day across Britain are likely to give much thought to the system that ensures that everything from painkillers to niche medicines are available. Beyond the pharmacist’s counter, however, lies a network spanning national borders andcontinents and involving multiple supply chains.

“It all works so smoothly because of the incentives and obligations that are in place,” said one industry insider. “What will be really interesting to see is what happens when it comes under pressure.”

Certainly the doling out of the pills is a largely non-market system in the UK but their manufacture is globalist marketry writ large. Which system is easier to change as technology does? Well, the drug companies do seem to be able to continue to produce new things, it’s the NHS which lags other health care systems in deploying them, isn’t it?