PATH DEPENDENCE. Author Larry Beinhart's Capitalism 104 makes the case for the welfare economics paradigm. He also notes the value of emergent order.

Everyone is stupid sometimes. Some people are stupid a lot of the time and a few, all the time. If one person is in charge of everything, then his or her stupidity affects everything. That’s the seed of the failure of planned economies.

But in a capitalist society – at it’s best – if someone has a stupid idea and convinces some people to invest in it, only he and his investors lose. It’s also important to remember the random part, because we are in a changing world, and the ideas that won last year may turn out to be stupid for this year’s world.

There are supposed to be sequels to this essay. I will follow up as required.