My friend Mark and my alma mater Auburn University are in news and all that related to my cherished social philosopher and economist F A Hayek, so can’t pass up the opportunity.
“The genesis of Wikipedia was an economics class that Jimmy Wales took when he was a student at Auburn University. Taught by Mark Thornton, much of the discussion centered around the 1945 paper by Nobel-winner F.A. Hayek titled “The Use of Knowledge in Society.”
That paper argued that socialism with its central planning simply could not keep up with the real knowledge in society because the kind of knowledge needed to power an economy is dispersed in society and cannot be brought together with central planning, with its political arrogance. Instead, it is brought together via a price system and private property, the key ingredients of a market economy.
Mr. Wales brought that concept to Wikipedia, and that is why it has flourished.”
Full article is in WSJ
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