It's been said that prices are not need to manage resources because needs and wants can be managed by government better, through statistical gathering. What's wrong with this analysis?
Statistics can show trends, but don't necessarily show what people value the most. And this is very important when you consider two or more "trends". Where do you allocate the most resources the most efficiently when there are hundreds of statistical "trends"?
Too bad no omnipotent being exist to answer this question. There is no substitute for the price system to know where to allocate resources. All "trends" become mere historical records in a matter of minutes and seconds. They don't represent real-time value in a market.
As Mises would say, that is only economic history. One glaring problem with getting rid of the pricing system and replacing it with statistics is that it tries to replace a dynamic system, that sponteaneously takes place by the actions of numerous individuals throught the economy and replaces it with averages that are usually out of date fairly quickly.
There is also, the problem of organizing what statistics mean what and how one could rationally plan for others without knowing their preferences etc. Even if one had all the knowledge generated by the pricing mechanism etc. It would still be nigh impossible to create any kind of plan for it because there would simply be far too many valuations to take in.
"Man thinks not only for the sake of thinking, but also in order to act."-Ludwig von Mises