Calculation Debate

* [This article appeared originally under the title "Die Wirtschaftsrechnung im sozialistischen Gemeinwesen" in the Archiv f?r Sozialwissenschaften, vol. 47 (1920). The present translation was first published in F.A. Hayek, ed.,Collectivist Economic Planning (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1935; reprint, Clifton, N.J.: Augustus M. Kelley, 1975), pp. 87-130. Some annotations appear in this edition and they are set aside in brackets.]

[I1] Oskar Lange, "On the Economic Theory of Socialism," Review of Economic Studies (1936-37).

[I2] Enrico Barone, "Il ministerio della produzione nello stato collettivista," Giornale degli Economisti e Revista di Statistica, vol 37 (1908)

[I3] Friedrich A. Hayek, "Socialist Calculation: the Competitive 'Solution'," Economica, n.s., vol. vii, no. 26(1940).

[1] Karl Kautsky, The Social Revolution and On the Morrow of the Social Revolution (London: Twentieth Century Press, 1907), Part II, p.1.

[2] [By "lower order" Mises refers to those goods made for final consumption, and by "higher order" those used in production.]

[3] Using that term, of course, in the sense only of the valuating subject, and not in an objective and universally applicable sense.

[4] Franz Cuhel, Zur Lehre von den Bed?rfnissen (Innsbruck: Wagner'ssche Universit?t-Buchhandlung, 1907), pp.198 f.

[5] Cf. Friedrich von Wieser, ?ber den Ursprung und die Hauptgesetze des wirtschaftlichen Eertes (Vienna: A. H?lder, 1884), pp. 185 f.

[6] Cf. Mises, Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1912), p. 16, with the references there given. [See the English translation by H.E. Batson, The Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1980), p. 52.]

[7] Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Wirtschaft und technik (Grundriss der Sozial?konomik, Section II; T?bingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1914), p. 216.

[8] This fact is also recognized by Otto Neurath (Durch die Kriegswirtschaft zur Naturalwirtschaft [Munich: G.D.W. Callwey, 1919], pp. 216 f.). He advances the view that every complete adminisrtative economy is, in the final analysis, a natural economy. "Socialization," he says, "is thus the pursuit of natural economy." Neurath merely overlooks the insuperable difficulties that would have to develop with economic calculation in the socialist commonwealth.

[9] Friedrich Engels, Herrn Eugen D?hrings Umw?lzung des Wissenschaft, 7th ed., pp. 335 f. [Translated by Emile Burns as Herr Eugen D?hring's Revolution in Science--Anti-D?ring (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1943).]

[10] Karl Marx, Capital, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (London: Allen & Unwin, 1928), p. 9.

[11] Karl Marx, Capital, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (London: Allen & Unwin, 1928), p. 12.

[12] Karl Marx, Capital, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (London: Allen & Unwin, 1928), p. 13 et seq.

[13] Cf. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, translated by William Smart (London and New York: Macmillan, 1890), p. 384. [See the English translation by George Huncke and Hans F. Sennholz (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1959) p. 299, where the phrase reads "a bit of legerdemain in the theorizing line that is astounding in its naivet?"]

[14] Cf. Vorl?ufiger Bericht der Sozialisierungskommission ?ber die Fragse der Sozialisierung des Kohlenbergbaues, concluded 15th February, 1919 (Berlin, 1919), p. 13.

[15]Cf. Karl Kautsky, Preface to "Atlanticus" [Gustav Jaeckh], Produktion und Konsum im Sozialstaat (Stuttgart: J.H.W. Dietz, 1898), p. 14.

[16] Cf. Otto Bauer, Der Weg zum Sozialismus (Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1919), p. 25.

[17] [The reader will remember that Mises is writing in 1920.]

[18] Cf. Otto Bauer, Der Weg zum Sozialismus (Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1919), p. 26 f.

[19] Cf. Otto Bauer, Der Weg zum Sozialismus (Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1919), p. 25.

[20] Cf. Mises, Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1912), p. 474 ff. [See the English translation by H.E. Batson, The Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1980), [Compare p. 411 of the 1980 English edition.]

[21] Cf. Otto Bauer, Der Weg zum Sozialismus (Vienna: Ignaz Brand, 1919), p. 24 f.

[22] [Mises is using the term "liberal" here in its nineteenth-century European sense, meaning "classical liberal" or libertarian. On liberalism see Mises's Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition, translated by Ralph Raico (Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1985).]

[23] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 12 f., 22ff. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[24] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 15. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[25] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 21 and 26. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.] Compare also Bukharin, Das Programm der Kommunisten (Z?rich: no pub., 1918), pp. 27 ff.

[26] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 24 f.. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[27] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 32. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[28] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 33. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[29] Cf. V.I. Lenin, Die n?chsten Aufgaben der Sowjetmacht (Berlin: Wilmersdorf, 1919), pp. 33. [English translation, The Soviets at Work.--This edition.]

[30] Neurath, too , imputes great importance to statistics for the setting up of the socialist economic plan. Otto Neurath (Durch die Kriegswirtschaft zur Naturalwirtschaft [Munich: G.D.W. Callwey, 1919], pp. 212 et seq.).

[31] Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Wirtschaft und technik (Grundriss der Sozial?konomik, Section II; T?bingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1914), p. 220.

[32] Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Wirtschaft und technik (Grundriss der Sozial?konomik, Section II; T?bingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1914), p. 219.

[33] Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Wirtschaft und technik (Grundriss der Sozial?konomik, Section II; T?bingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1914), p. 225.

[34] Friedrich Muckle, Das Kulturideal des Sozialismus (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1919), p. 213. On the other hand, Muckle demands the "highest degree of rationalisation of economic life in order to curtail hours of labor, and to permit man to withdraw to an island where he can listen to the melody of his being."