Reply To: Rifkin, Mason, Townsend … Reynolds!
A review of that book by Doctorow has been lined up for the April Socialist Standard.
In the meantime I’ve tracked down a quote from Tony Cliff and Russia and Ford:
About the second argument, that in Stalinist Russia there is a planned economy, while under capitalism there is no plan. Not correct. The characteristic of capitalism is that there is a plan in the individual unit, but no planning between units. In the Ford factory there is a plan. They will not produce one and a half engines per car, nor three wheels per car. There is central command about how many engines, wheels, etc they produce. There is a plan, but there is anarchy between Ford and General Motors. In Stalinist Russia there was a plan for the Russian economy, but there was no plan between the Russian economy, and, let us say, the German economy.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/2000/millennium/chap05.htm