Yet it is either astonishingly arrogant or astonishingly naïve to think that "if only we got a crack at it we'd do it right."

Any mechanism of government can and will be abused. Some such mechanisms like those of centrally planned economies are not only more likely to be abused, but more easy to abuse. Worse, they are so very often employed by the same people who think on the matter and decide we're just going to have to kill the people who don't agree with us.

The only thing that makes us better is if we take those lessons from history as a warning and prioritize liberty first. These mechanisms prioritize equal outcome, which is a fools errand. Doubly so in a leaky economy.