Rick

“Centralized planning also presupposes a universal moral agreement that never exists. People can agree on lesser items of importance, but we will never agree on the all-encompassing worldview that central planning needs if it is to reflect the actual will of the people. In fact, the idea of a universal morality is becoming less and less plausible in our increasingly diverse world. Centralized planners think the lack of universal moral agreement is a consequence of people’s ignorance and that they, the planners, know these absolutes. Their belief in such absolutes as centralized planning or social utility combined with the contention that a core group (centralized planning authority or the World Bank) knows these moral absolutes, allows extremist beliefs to be imposed on the people despite the consequences. These policies have proved to be death-dealing, as the recent histories of the Soviet Union, Tanzania, and Ethiopia indicate.”
― Scott W. Gustafson, At the Altar of Wall Street: The Rituals, Myths, Theologies, Sacraments, and Mission of the Religion Known as the Modern Global Economy