[FoRK] Re: Special Circumstances

[Dave Long]

> The mistake of communism isn't in it's goal- who wouldn't want to live
> in a world where they could have everything they want for nothing.
> The problem is assuming that centrally managing resources and
> decisions is a sensible way to get there.


In general, I agree that centralized resource allocation and decision  
making has a poor track record, but there are certainly domains where  
OR works better than simple utilitaxis.  Apparently minimum-cost  
perfect matching in a bipartite graph isn't your ([great-]*grand-) 
father's barter:

Okasaki, "What the heck is a math trade?"
<http://okasaki.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html>
> Note that the "most trades possible?" can be quite a lot. The  
> largest math trade to date involved 2320 items, of which 994  
> traded. These 994 items were broken into 7 trade loops, including  
> one monstrous loop of 920 items. Just imagine standing in a circle  
> with 919 of your closest friends and everyone handing their game to  
> the person on their right!


-Dave