Comment by shmobot
16 days ago
I don't think there are many people who believe the state shouldn't intervene at all and that humanity will blossom without it. I'm sure most people strive for some kind of balance.
For those of us who are old enough and were born in the USSR, it feels like we've seen how a similar scenario with too much state intervention has played out before. On one hand, we were so proud of putting a man in space before anyone else; on the other hand, we used to hoard a year's supply of toilet paper and other basic necessities.
Honestly, I think the problem for the USSR were more closely tied to early on becoming a military dictatorship than the particular economic ideas that military dictatorship took on.
The only way to make collectivism work is being a force monopolist / military dictatorship.
If you eliminate economic gain as a motivation for doing things, what's left is to motivate through fear. You aren't working hard enough? You're a breaker; off to the gulag for you!