Ȉǿ Partʺ: Economics
socialists’ plans that the intellectual leaders of socialism are now busy
designing schemes for a socialist system in which the market, market
prices for the factors of production, and catallactic competition are to be
preserved. Ļe overwhelmingly rapid triumph of the demonstration that
no economic calculation is possible under a socialist system is without
precedent indeed in the history of human thought. Ļe socialists cannot
help admitting their crushing final defeat. Ļey no longer claim that
socialism is matchlessly superior to capitalism because it brushes away
markets, market prices, and competition. On the contrary. Ļey are now
eager to justify socialism by pointing out that it is possible to preserve
these institutions even under socialism. Ļey are drafting outlines for a
socialism in which there are prices and competition.
What these neosocialists suggest is really paradoxical. Ļey want to abol-
ish private control of the means of production, market exchange, mar-
ket prices, and competition. But at the same time they want to orga-
nize the socialist Utopia in such a way that people could actas ifthese
things were still present. Ļey want people to play market as children
play war, railroad, or school. Ļey do not comprehend how such child-
ish play differs from the real thing it tries to imitate. (ȀȈȃȈ, pp.Ȇǿȁ–ȆǿȂ;
footnote omitted)Perhaps the culmination of the free-enterprise trend in socialist think-
ing is James E. Meade’sPlanning and the Price Mechanism(ȀȈȃȇ). Meade
calls himself a socialist, but his proposals amount to scarcely more than
a program for the reconstruction of competitive capitalism, including a
moderate amount of government enterprise.
Ļe implication of my remarks should be clear by now. If economists
are bent on seeing socialism substituted for capitalism, they should leave
the task to their colleagues who are better qualified for the job, namely, to
the lexicographers.
ŞőŒőŞőŚŏőş
Barone, Enrico. “Ļe Ministry of Production in the Collectivist State.”ȀȈǿȇ. In
HayekȀȈȂȄ.
Beckwith, Burnham P.Ļe Economic Ļeory of a Socialist Economy. Stanford,
Calif.: Stanford University Press,ȀȈȃȈ.
Brutzkus, Boris.Economic Planning in Soviet Russia. London: Routledge & Sons,
ȀȈȂȄ.