What's a good & simple refutation to the economic calculation problem?

[Jacob Cliff]

And can centralized planning be democratic? Electing a board of planners seems like an oligarchy or just electing new capitalists to run the economy.

[PhoenixAsh]

ehh...your OP doesn't match your thread title. The economic calculation problem is about rationality of pricess and distribution because of the lack of markets....not about democracy.

But the ECP is based on the assumptions that markets work rationally and are efficient and therefore are superior to a planned economy. That is simply not the case. Markets are not efficient. The ECP therefore is flawed in its basis itself and was heavilly criticized for it by socialists and non-socialists alike.

Also note that contrary to the ECP itself...the theory only proves that socialism planned economy is inefficient and nothing more.

On the question of democracy...one counter argument against the centralization of the planned economy and incidentally also a solution to the inefficiency of the ECP...is to decentralize planning and distribution to allow more flexibility and adaptation to regional changes. This would also solve the democracy question.