… is from page 171 of Don Lavoie’s 1985 book, Rivalry and Central Planning:
The basic problem is whether the manager will have at his disposal the requisite knowledge when he does not face competitive rivals who are trying to outbid him for resources. He may sincerely want to produce at minimum cost but he may simply not know what the minimum cost is if he is not involved in a rivalrous, competitive discovery process….
To assume that the knowledge of the relative costs of alternative projects is available is, as Hayek says, to miss the whole point.
