It’s kind of a lib book, but the people’s republic of Walmart (or whatever it’s called) shows that central planning and logistics have advanced so much that it’s far more achievable than it used to be.

I’ve also worked doing demand planning and transport logistics for huge supermarket chains and food companies… They manage pretty well, even without supercomputers or fancy optimization algorithms. The systems that already work pretty well could be largely left alone, just changing the key variable from profit to some measure of social benefit. Of course, not every organization has good logistics or planning, nor it’s easy to get there, but it is possible!

I have my own criticisms of central planning models, mostly when it comes to governance and community consultation, but it’s silly to look at the current global trade networks and say: nope, no planning here! It’s impossible to coordinate people towards a common goal if they’re motivated to achieve it!