Any form of "planned" economy presupposes that one person is substituting his will and judgment for that of another person. Usually by force. When you start forcing people to do things the way an elite thinks they should be done, then you have the main reason for the "abysmal record" of central planning. I'm not sure how "abysmal" that record has to be before one finally discards the fantasy that something as complex as an economy can be micromanaged.*

The key to proper human relations is to remove initiated force from the equation. In politics, this is a government that enshrines individual rights and protects its citizens from force and fraud. In economics, the consequence is laissez faire capitalism. Capitalism is not a primary, it is one result of a particular philosophy. While no economic system can guarantee an effortless life of ease for everyone, capitalism works better than anything else.

There are more important things than money and profits, but that doesn't make money and profits evil. The people who walk around denigrating wealth and profit are generally not people who are missing any meals themselves.

It's tough to see people having problems and not want to try and do something about it. But the solutions you hear from the Left are not the ones that work.

Ever read anything by Ayn Rand? Other than the Fountainhead, which they probably made you read in school.

*What's funny is talking about this kind of thing to an environmentalist. Most of them believe that socialism and central planning are essential to running a country. But if I were go up to a rain forest, and claim that the forest would be a bit healthier if I went in and cut down a certain percentage of one kind of bush, they would scream in indignation, and lecture me for hours on how I can't go into something as complex as an ecosystem and make changes that I think would improve things, because everything has a link to everything else, and I can't predict the outcome.