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rotorguy64's review
5.0
Very dry and technical, but that was to be expected due to the subject matter and the fact that the intended audience were professional economists. This is some extremely dense stuff, but if you want to understand Mises' calculation-argument - truly understand it - then reading this is how you go about it. It's not [a:Hayeks|670307|Friedrich A. Hayek|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1396194085p2/670307.jpg] knowledge-argument in a different form, the two aren't even as closely related as you would think. Mises argues that even if a central planner did have perfect knowledge of the individual valuations of consumer goods by everyone in the world, he would have no basis for economic calculation. Production goods of a higher order (those that are farther removed from the final consumption good) could then not be allocated rationally. A socialist economy can only work when it still has prices to operate with, either from its own past (which naturally stands in the way of any progress at all) or by capitalist neighbors as in the case of the USSR and similar countries, or when it fully succumbs to primitivism and stops using production goods of a higher order. This is very interesting information to keep in mind when reading [b:A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru|14547969|A Socialist Empire The Incas of Peru|Louis Baudin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347572671s/14547969.jpg|20190665], a book for which Mises even wrote the foreword.
The editors notes in this edition are excellent, by the way. They really help with the understanding, and include some additional information on how Hayeks and Mises' theories relate to each other and how the latters argument has been misunderstood by economists of all schools, from [b:socialists|1782484|Towards a New Socialism|Paul Cockshott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361229782s/1782484.jpg|1781333] to fellow Austrians.
The editors notes in this edition are excellent, by the way. They really help with the understanding, and include some additional information on how Hayeks and Mises' theories relate to each other and how the latters argument has been misunderstood by economists of all schools, from [b:socialists|1782484|Towards a New Socialism|Paul Cockshott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361229782s/1782484.jpg|1781333] to fellow Austrians.
kumosayi's review
4.0
Very interesting read. A bit hard when you're sick and read it right before bed, but absolutely understandable.
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