What are the benefits of having a command economy and a mixed economy?
The government (command) cannot allocate resources as quickly and effectively as a market based economy. For example: you cannot guess how much food each person will eat in a year, it has to be done from the national average. In a market based economy, the price mechanism dictates who gets what and this is automatic (producers – farmers – always aim to maximise their profit but to remain competitive they must remain inline with their fellow farmers or form a cartel – which is illegal). But the government tells the farms how much to produce and tells the lorries how much to carry to the shop. Therefore, there is a lag time where there will be shortages. The former USSR was famous for beauraucracy, giant mountains of paperwork, which of course all takes time. The USSR did indeed have food shortages aplenty, these can be solved by imports but it would have looked bad having to buy food to feed your people from your bitter enemy, America. The main advantage to having a command based econom
