Monday, September 06, 2021

Book Review: Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28234031-economic-calculation-in-the-socialist-commonwealth" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1450381039l/28234031._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28234031-economic-calculation-in-the-socialist-commonwealth">Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/46766.Ludwig_von_Mises">Ludwig von Mises</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4208120208">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />


This extended essay is a brilliant refutation of the "logic and practises" of socialist economics. It is especially valuable not only because there is a new fad in new socialism (my phrase) but because one sees very poorly uninformed critiques of economic freedom and capitalism even in countries with decently run economies. I don't intend to write a summary of the main arguments but my view is that this is an excellent piece for students of political economy and other people with opinions about the failures of existing systems of economic and social organization. <br /><br />But the reason it merits a five-star rating in my world is that the arguments are cogent and the author was prescient. he boldly predicted the internal contradictions of socialist organization and he was borne right, fifty years later. <br /><br />

It requires patience to read because this is a translation from the German language and the sentence structure requires keenness. That stated, this isn't a fine piece of literature because of the facility with language but mostly for its plain logic and rigour in reasoning.
 

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