Some things deserve to be repeated

Thomas Sowell, writing at Townhall.com[*1] on why centrally planned economies (like, for instance, the current U.S. education system) never, ever work:

One easy to understand reason is that central planners in the days of the Soviet Union had to set over 24 million prices. Nobody is capable of setting and changing 24 million prices in a way that will direct resources and output in an efficient manner.

For that, each of the 24 million prices would have to be weighed and set against each of the other 24 million prices. in order to provide incentives for resources to go where they were most in demand by producers and output to go where it was most in demand by consumers.

In a market economy, however, nobody has to take on such an impossible task. Each producer and each consumer need only be concerned with the relatively few prices relevant to their own decisions, with coordination of the economy being left to supply and demand.

Central planning of economic activities is NEVER as efficient or as advantageous to regular folks as free market systems are.  Never.

And pretty much every thing human beings do is an economic activity.  Health care.  Education.  Filling up the gas tank.  Buying groceries.  Finding an apartment and paying the rent.  Taking out a home loan.  Pretty much everything.