Government control of the economy leads not only to power over production, but also to power over consumption and distribution. Displacing the price system with government edicts takes the distribution of goods and services out of the hands of individual buyers and sellers, and places it into the hands of a central authority. With this power the central authority can wield great control over the populace. To believe that such a vast concentration of power will not be used at some point to oppress the population is to deny the history of mankind. The world is full of maniacs and coercive utopians-many of whom are interested in exercising political power, as history well shows.
All totalitarian regimes rely heavily on economic controls to coerce their subjects.
The efforts of Hitler's National Socialists to oppress Jews and other minority groups were greatly facilitated by the Nazi government's control of employment and the distribution of goods. Those not rigidly conforming to Maoist doctrine during the Cultural Revolution often lost their jobs, no matter how valuable their skills. The success of the Chinese central planners in enforcing such an unpopular policy which meets the resistance of centuries of Chinese tradition shows how great the power a government can wield over its people when it controls the economy. Neither Germany in 1933, nor Russia in 1917, nor China in 1949 had long traditions of democracy and political and economic freedom. The United States, in contrast, has a long and deeply ingrained tradition of democracy and freedom, as well as constitutional arrangements which make quickly installed tyranny unlikely.