ABSTRACT
One of the most important lessons to be learned from the experience of Soviet-style economies is that ownership of the means of production is not a simple issue. As noted by E. F. Schumacher, an economist with the British Coal Board: Ownership, whether public or private, is merely an element of framework. Schumacher pointed out that private ownership limits the firm's freedom of objectives. The traditional left-wing arguments for nationalization includes: Public utility, Monopoly, Basic industry, planning. Since World War II, Western European governments have consciously employed public enterprise for a number of purposes. Professor Pasquale Saraceno argues that, as capitalist development progresses, competition is retarded by monopolistic tendencies and growth itself is restricted by structural deficiencies which the market mechanism alone cannot rectify. Economist John Sheahan concluded that government intervention that takes the form of multilateral consultation through a systematic planning process is not the same kind of intervention as a specific, ad hoc, directive from a President or other political office.
