Got dragged into a discussion about the $15 minimum wage thing at work and one of the participants was advocating a system where the government sets the prices on everything. Literally everything. Wages, goods, services, whatever. Wages would be based on a semi-sliding scale based on experience and/or proficiency testing. Hard goods would have a base price modified by some yet to be determined formula grading reliability and other factors so you would still be paying more for a Cadillac than you would for a Chevy. Real estate would again be a base price modified by variables like location and desirability. Free market is pretty much out the window, companies could still turn a profit, just not on the scale they currently enjoy (His words).
I didn’t debate the obvious flaws too much then and I’m not really looking for that discussion here. I just want to know what it would be classified and maybe if it’s ever been tried. If others want to discuss it, that’s fine. I’ll probably duck out once I get the info I’m looking for. He did get me that curious about it.
“Price controls” or “incomes policy” is the general economic policy. I don’t think it implies any particular form of gov’t.
They’re generally not well regarded, as not allowing the markets to set prices causes inefficient surpluses and shortages. But plenty of countries have experimented with them (including the US, most recently under Nixon), either to try and limit inflation or micromangae the economy for increased wartime production.
The best I could come up with would be some sort of benevolent dictatorship where the government is actually acting in the best interest of all people rather than just their cronies. Proponent seemed to think that this was the sort of system they have in the Star Trek universe where there’s no poverty/homelessness/etc.
Yes. According to Ian Mortimer’s book, The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, price controls were nearly universal in the middle ages.
I know that this isn’t what the OP asked, but whenever a government steps in to control some commodity, an entrepreneur will set up an illegal market for it. Think drugs, think prohibition.
That’s what I was going to suggest, to the extent that the term “fascism” has any definite meaning in economics. Or else just call it naïve and be done with it.