I was in Berlin in the fall of 2010 for several months and we went to visit the DDR museum. (This is the museum about the former East Germany, which was the communist controlled half of Berlin and Germany.)
One of the things they had in the museum was a simulation of exactly this situation. You got to be the commissar of an industry and you had to centrally manage the economy. You almost always failed completely. (You had to deal with more than production, though, you had to deal with worker housing, and stuff like that.)
It was very educational. I'd say that at least the curators of the DDR museum agree with this parable being relevant.
One of the things they had in the museum was a simulation of exactly this situation. You got to be the commissar of an industry and you had to centrally manage the economy. You almost always failed completely. (You had to deal with more than production, though, you had to deal with worker housing, and stuff like that.)
It was very educational. I'd say that at least the curators of the DDR museum agree with this parable being relevant.