Market Failure and Linguistic Failure

According to the Coyote blogger:

One of the great things about modern English is that it is bottom-up and open-source.  Years ago, the Oxford English Dictionary took the approach of documenting what English is, rather than the French approach of dictating what the language should be.  As a result, the language evolves based on how ordinary people are using it.  Which is perhaps why the word in many languages for new trends and technologies is often the English word (much to the consternation of the French).

The same reasoning that appears to show that central planning could lessen “market failure” applies just as well to linguistic failure.

On the other hand, setting up a centrally-planned language is obviously preposterous … or maybe “doubleplusungood” would be a better term.