Society has been plagued by the problem of knowing all the relevant knowledge to make an informed decision. Presidents have difficulty obtaining all the intelligence needed to make a decision during a time of crisis. The question of providing knowledge to those who need it has been a central battle in economics and how those in a position make decisions based on that knowledge. FA Hayek explains his theories in his essay The Use of Knowledge in Society and the Meaning of Competition. In the essay The Use of Knowledge in Society, Hayek explains that one of the main problems faced in economics is that society does not use the information given to them, which would lead to a misallocation of resources. Hayek establishes that this problem stems from a common misunderstanding regarding society's economic problem. Hayek then moves on to the concept of economic planning. In that discussion of planning Hayek raises the question of whether economic planning should be carried out by one economic entity or by several businesses and individuals. The concept of how knowledge is passed on to these individuals and that if society wants central economic planning it has to pay for inefficiencies, a decentralized economy means having functions spread across many people. He says the halfway point between a centralized economy and a decentralized economy is a monopoly and in that structure organized industries would control the economy. It then introduces the concept of efficiency and how society wants the most of its resources and how it obtains the knowledge to achieve that efficiency. Hayek then goes on to say that society has ignored economic knowledge for the sake of scientific knowledge. He goes on to say that anyone pursuing this economic goal knows… middle of paper… piracy to find the best knowledge so that society can make the most of society's resources. Knowledge and competition go hand in hand. hand. The knowledge we have in society may be concentrated in a group of people who make the decision, but usually these decisions are not in the best interests of consumers. We can decentralize the knowledge that each person has some sort of economic knowledge and the man on the spot moves based on price signals to move those resources into different lines of employment. Scientific knowledge has come to replace dynamic knowledge because dynamic knowledge is seen as harmful to society. Competition is not what we think it is, but rather a process of gaining as much knowledge as possible as producers and consumers make the most of our scarce resources. When we put these two together we get a unique process that stimulates economic growth.