Jiro was proposing some regulation
To be precise, he was proposing price fixing.
and you responded by saying that totalitarian central planning has a bad track record
No, I did not -- the word "totalitarian" is a gratuitous addition by you.
I don't think we have enough evidence to make that claim with a lot of confidence.
Oh, but I do think we have more than enough evidence (have you looked at China, for example?). I don't think that claiming "we don't know yet" is a reasonable position -- this question has been settled.
the word "totalitarian" is a gratuitous addition by you.
It doesn't seem that way to me. What has failed is a bunch of totalitarian communist countries with central planning. How do you know it is better to characterize that situation as "central planning has failed" than as "totalitarian central planning has failed"?
this question has been settled.
Point me to an explanation of how it has been settled and how rival explanations for the observations have been dealt with?
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.