Re: Deming, Communism and Freedom

[bill@scherkenbach.com]

Cliff:

I am really not qualified to speak about "political economy".  I think that labels placed on Macro (political, economic, scientific, philosophical, religious) Systems are polarizing.  Operationally, much good and much harm have occurred from both communism and capitalism.  I don't recall what Deming's position was on either ism.  He was a statistician.  My statement was based on an over-simplification of both isms.  I see the essence of communism as no differentiation of any merit.  While the essence of capitalism is every cause is special and differentiable.  One lives and dies on one's merit.  I think any system would benefit by incorporating the flexibility of both special and common cause variation.  One can use special and common cause to analyze/predict the performance of any system.  Both communism and capitalism have their heroes and bums and sometimes we agree on which is which.

Bill