ABSTRACT
On the one hand, expansion of production requires the maintenance of a relative equilibrium and of certain ratios among various units in the enterprise; on the other, it inevitably creates many disequilibria. This is a contradiction. The purpose of socialist enterprise planning is to deal with such contradiction consciously and correctly and to make efforts continually and actively to bring relative equilibrium to absolute disequilibrium and to bring unity to opposites, thus stimulating production, Lenin said: "In effect, the attribute of planning is to maintain equilibrium consciously and constantly." Comrade Mao Tse-tung also said; "Every year our country must draw up a national economic plan so as to determine the ratio of accumulation to consumption. This is necessary because equilibrium must be maintained between production and consumption. The so-called equilibrium is a transitory phase of a contradiction. A year later, the equilibrium, viewed from the process of development as a whole, will once again generate contradiction, thus turning equilibrium into disequilibrium and unity into opposites, which in turn calls for new equilibrium and unity in the second year. Such is the superiority of our planned 104economy. In fact, every month and every quarter, equilibrium and unity are broken up, and adjustments, partial or sectorial, are called into action. Sometimes, contradictions emerge and equilibria are upset because subjective wishes are at variance with objective reality. This is when a mistake is committed. The constant emergence of contradictions and the constant solution of such contradictions constitute the law of dialectical materialism." As Comrade Mao so lucidly illustrated here, the development of the state economy will produce disequilibria every year, every quarter, or even every month. The purpose of planning is to make proper arrangements to handle such contradictions in order to reach new equilibrium.
