This is a simplified view of the differences, to the point of maybe being oversimplified. (But you probably know that already.)
Something "free markets" provide over planned economies is free(er) flow of information.
Markets/economies are often incredibly complex. Allowing individual actors to signal information through pricing and competition, and allowing risk takers to exploit differences in these opinions of people to profit and simultaneously even out the differences in the direction that best corresponds to reality builds a system where it's much more likely the right things are done by the right people for the right reasons. It's just too complex to plan for. And besides, without the free markets there to give you feedback, you won't know what it is you're planning for.
A (socially fair) free market is also a proper scoring rule for forecasts. It rewards people who are good at seeing into the future, and punishes those who are bad at it, in proportion to the costs of their errors. (This goes back to de Finetti's operational definition of probability.)
Note that this is rather abstractly, in some sort of perfect microcosm. In practise, all free markets are distorted by privileged rent-seeking and other inefficiencies. I fully understand anyone who would be offended when I say that a free market punishes people who are bad at seeing into the future (hell, just reading that offends me!) because in reality, it also punishes all sorts of people, and often people who are great forecasters are precluded from exploiting their abilities in the free market, and so on and so forth. Please read my message not as social commentary or political bias, but the mathematical/cybernetic principles underlying this stuff, if executed well.
And obviously, this doesn't even begin to explain the Sears/Walmart story, so I suspect there are other factors underlying that, too.
Something "free markets" provide over planned economies is free(er) flow of information.
Markets/economies are often incredibly complex. Allowing individual actors to signal information through pricing and competition, and allowing risk takers to exploit differences in these opinions of people to profit and simultaneously even out the differences in the direction that best corresponds to reality builds a system where it's much more likely the right things are done by the right people for the right reasons. It's just too complex to plan for. And besides, without the free markets there to give you feedback, you won't know what it is you're planning for.
A (socially fair) free market is also a proper scoring rule for forecasts. It rewards people who are good at seeing into the future, and punishes those who are bad at it, in proportion to the costs of their errors. (This goes back to de Finetti's operational definition of probability.)
Note that this is rather abstractly, in some sort of perfect microcosm. In practise, all free markets are distorted by privileged rent-seeking and other inefficiencies. I fully understand anyone who would be offended when I say that a free market punishes people who are bad at seeing into the future (hell, just reading that offends me!) because in reality, it also punishes all sorts of people, and often people who are great forecasters are precluded from exploiting their abilities in the free market, and so on and so forth. Please read my message not as social commentary or political bias, but the mathematical/cybernetic principles underlying this stuff, if executed well.
And obviously, this doesn't even begin to explain the Sears/Walmart story, so I suspect there are other factors underlying that, too.