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aaravbalsu 's review for:
The People's Republic of Walmart: How the World's Biggest Corporations Are Laying the Foundation for Socialism
by Michal Rozworski, Leigh Phillips
"In truth, Amazon specializes in highly managed chaos."
This is an excellent read for anyone who wishes to understand the importance of planned economies; while it may seem unintuitive at first, corporations are essentially miniature internal economies within larger national (and sometimes multinational) economies. Rozworski and Philips skillfully weave a narrative focused on the theory of neoclassical economics, the fallacy of "free markets" (no such thing has ever existed), examples of successful planned economies (ranging from Walmart to Amazon to Toyota) and unsuccessful ones (Sears, which fell prey to a Randian management consultant, and is now in the process of shuttering its doors). Drawing on a blend of history, operations research, algorithmic efficiency( and no small amount of humor!), the authors make the case for planned and socialized economies of scale and how these institutions can ultimately create efficient production and supply chains that still account for the remarkable complexity of consumer tastes (begone, cliched bread lines and overly troped images of drab Soviet department stores). More importantly, these systems are imbued with democratic, worker-owned spirit. and will thus maintain labor's dignity. Big data (sigh) and collective intelligence, tools that weren't available to planned economies earlier in the 20th century will play a huge role in this development.
This book is unabashedly left-wing and draws heavily on the Marxist framework of history and economics, and this is what I like. I studied operations research in graduate school, and it's great to see a book that argues for the transformation of complex corporate supply chains into socialized instruments that work for people, not profit.
P.S. - This book was enjoyable (and short) enough that I binged it in one day.
This is an excellent read for anyone who wishes to understand the importance of planned economies; while it may seem unintuitive at first, corporations are essentially miniature internal economies within larger national (and sometimes multinational) economies. Rozworski and Philips skillfully weave a narrative focused on the theory of neoclassical economics, the fallacy of "free markets" (no such thing has ever existed), examples of successful planned economies (ranging from Walmart to Amazon to Toyota) and unsuccessful ones (Sears, which fell prey to a Randian management consultant, and is now in the process of shuttering its doors). Drawing on a blend of history, operations research, algorithmic efficiency( and no small amount of humor!), the authors make the case for planned and socialized economies of scale and how these institutions can ultimately create efficient production and supply chains that still account for the remarkable complexity of consumer tastes (begone, cliched bread lines and overly troped images of drab Soviet department stores). More importantly, these systems are imbued with democratic, worker-owned spirit. and will thus maintain labor's dignity. Big data (sigh) and collective intelligence, tools that weren't available to planned economies earlier in the 20th century will play a huge role in this development.
This book is unabashedly left-wing and draws heavily on the Marxist framework of history and economics, and this is what I like. I studied operations research in graduate school, and it's great to see a book that argues for the transformation of complex corporate supply chains into socialized instruments that work for people, not profit.
P.S. - This book was enjoyable (and short) enough that I binged it in one day.