What is missing here is Hayek's implicit reliance on the core point of Mises's critique of socialism. The most important information to gather for planning purposes if efficiency in production is wanted is that of relative scarcity--as represented most importantly by resource prices in a market system, and unavailable in a socialist economy. The purpose of the firm in a market economy is to produce at the least cost in order to maximize profit, given anticipated commodity prices. A firm in a national or international market economy is able to gather the information to calculate expected resource prices, as well as those for the commodities they plan to produce. Government planners have no market to resort to for the price information that is needed for least cost production, whatever the other information concerning technology, workforce skills, physical availability of resources, etc. As Mises argued, their only resort is ad hoc or arbitrary decisionmaking. Samuel Bostaph