1210 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 28
Only in totalitarian societies can the problem of social and economic
organisation be reduced to the formulation of a preference
function.
8) Professor FRISCH has said that there are two things which are
different, and which require to be treated separately. The first is
what he called the selection problem, and the second the implementation
problem. In my opinion, this is absolutely impossible. I am
an engineer, and I can give you a very good example of such an
‘mpossibility. In coal mines we don’t know at all what the production
functions are exactly. No engineer exists who can specify what
the production function is in a concrete situation. What engineers
do is to choose between different projects in comparing their
discounted net present value (in french: leur valeur nette actualisée).
And for this purpose they use a system of prices which only a market
economy functioning in an appropriate framework can provide. Thus
it is impossible to separate selection and implementation. From this
point of view, I cannot see at all how the FRISCH system could work.
We don’t know the production functions, and correct decisions cannot
only be taken in a decentralised system with the help of an appropriate
price system.
9) And again, what should be considered as desirable growth?
Growth of population, growth of efficiency — is growth really desirable?
Some people prefer stability to growth. Personally, I am for
efficiency, but that is a personal and subjective view. Other people
may prefer the stability of their jobs; they can definitely prefer stability
to efficiency. In fact, growth is not such an unquestionable
goal as Professor FRISCH was suggesting at the beginning of his
exposé.
For me what seems in fact desirable is not growth but simply
people’s happiness.
10) Professor FriscH has suggested that the centralized economies
have grown faster than the market economies. In fact, at the
least this statement is open to question and personally I think that
it does not conform to the real facts
‘17] Frisch - pag. 14
