[Marxism] How to plan an economy.

[David Picón Álvarez <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I am new to the list, so I hope this is not a question that has been 
thrashed to death. I've read some of the basic texts by Marx, Engels, Lenin, 
but by no means would I consider myself an expert in Marxist theory, not yet 
at any rate. I have a strong interest in mathematics and programming, and so 
one of the questions that most concerns me is how one plans an economy. I am 
also worried that neoclassical economics has so much mathematical power 
behind it (even if its models are crude simplifications) and I'm not sure to 
what extent Marxist economics compete in sophistication with it. What is 
known about the allocation problem?

The only tool so far that I have found would help in planning an economy is 
linear programming (for which we can thank a Soviet economist, at least in 
part), and perhaps other discrete optimization techniques that I haven't yet 
looked into.

So, hopefully someone on this mailing list is interested in the technical 
infrastructural work of planning an economy without a market and price 
signaling and can point me in interesting directions.

--David.

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