Editing Planned economy (section)

=== Relationship with socialism ===
[[File:Albert Einstein Head.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Albert Einstein advocated for a socialist planned economy with his 1949 article "[[Why Socialism?]]"]]

In the May 1949 issue of the ''[[Monthly Review]]'' titled "[[Why Socialism?]]", [[Albert Einstein]] wrote:<ref>Einstein, Albert (May 1949). [http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php "Why Socialism?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317032934/http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php |date=2011-03-17 }}, ''[[Monthly Review]]''.</ref>
<blockquote>I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.</blockquote>

While [[socialism]] is not equivalent to economic planning or to the concept of a planned economy, an influential conception of socialism involves the replacement of capital markets with some form of economic planning in order to achieve ''[[ex-ante]]'' coordination of the economy. The goal of such an economic system would be to achieve conscious control over the economy by the population, specifically so that the use of the [[surplus product]] is controlled by the producers.<ref>{{cite book|last= Feinstein|first= C. H.|title= Socialism, Capitalism and Economic Growth: Essays Presented to Maurice Dobb|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1975|isbn=0-521-29007-4|page= 174|quote=We have presented the view that planning and market mechanisms are instruments that can be used both in socialist and non-socialist societies. [...] It was important to explode the primitive identification of central planning and socialism and to stress the instrumental character of planning.}}</ref> The specific forms of planning proposed for socialism and their feasibility are subjects of the [[socialist calculation debate]].