Limited approaches to economic planning

Although business and government are said to invest in the future, this "future" tends to refer to "the next five years", or to be limited in scope to the future of one place or, at most, of Western nations. This mode of planning results in chaos wherever long-term commitments are required. Business does not have the vision, the practical tools, nor the methodological styles necessary to plan for its own development in the context of the overall, world-wide economic foundation, and government is blocked by the need to respond to voters and powerful lobbies.

Recently the British government took four years of public debate before it went ahead with plans to construct one nuclear reactor.