Gracia Gilreath, Chapter 4, Question 6

I thought the section on how the Soviet Union allocated its resources was interesting and surprising. In general, government involvement in certain areas of the economy can cause scarce resources to be allocated by politicians, aristocrats and bureaucrats instead of the market. In the case of the Soviet Union, the government controlled where the money, that was taken from the workers, was going. They used the money to advance their space program, instead of creating a birth control pill, which they didn't believe was necessary in their economy. They were the first to send a rocket into space, however, they found that their decision had tragically negative consequences because in the years of communism, there was a ratio of 2:1 abortions per birth. In this situation, the allocations had benefits, but the benefits didn't seem to necessarily outweigh the costs. Government involvement was just as damaging as it was beneficial.