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ZERO-SUM GAME: A situation in which a fixed amount is divided up among the winners and losers. In a zero-sum game the wins equal the losses. Many stock market, or financial market, exchanges are zero-sum. One person buys low and sells high, while another buys high and sells low. The wealth in such transactions are merely transferred from one person to another. "Productive" market transactions, in contrast, are not zero-sum. The act of producing goods and services from resources that are consumed to satisfy wants and needs results in a net gain to society.
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                           COMMAND ECONOMY: An economy in which the government uses its coercive powers to answer the three questions of allocation. This is the real world version of the idealized theoretical pure command economy. While in this real world version some allocation decisions are undertaken by markets, the vast majority are made through central planning. A command economy is one in which government commands (directs, orders, or dictates) the vast majority of resource allocation decisions. The contrasting economic system is a market-oriented economy, in which resource allocation decisions are achieved primarily through voluntary market exchanges.To achieve the allocation in absence of market exchanges, command economies make use of central planning. While central planning exists to some degree even in market-oriented capitalist economies, the level of detail needed in command economies is extensive. Every input, every output, every intermediate good, every worker, every resource is allocated based on a predetermined plan. Such planning is inherently less flexible and less efficient than markets. The two most notable command economies of the 20th century were the communist/socialist economic systems of China and the Soviet Union. Other countries in eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America also had various forms of command economies during the mid- to late-1900s. The philosophical basis of 20th century command economies can be found in the works of Karl Marx, including the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital. These works presented the economic rationale for the decline of capitalism and the emergence of communism through the dictatorship of the proletariat, with an intermediate stage of socialism. While Marx's ultimate, utopian system of communism is totally devoid of government, the intermediate state of socialism involves extensive government control, hence a command economy. Soviet and Chinese political leaders and revolutionaries who adopted a communistic philosophy never quite made it past the intermediate socialistic, command economy stage.
Recommended Citation:COMMAND ECONOMY, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2022. [Accessed: January 23, 2022].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching for rummage sales trying to buy either an extra large beach blanket or a large flower pot shaped like a Greek urn. Be on the lookout for attractive cable television service repair people.
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North Carolina supplied all the domestic gold coined for currency by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia until 1828.
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"Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead." -- Charles M. Schwab
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JLE
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