Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 1 (LvMI) by Murray N. Rothbard

Author:Murray N. Rothbard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781610165358
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
Published: 1987-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

“New Papers on the Problem of Socialist Economic Calculation”

In volume 60 (1928) of the Archiv, von Mises once again returned to the problem of discussing the contributions of a number of new authors in a piece titled “Neue Schriften zum Problem des sozialistische Wirtschaftsrechnung” (“New Papers on the Problem of Socialist Economic Calculation,” henceforth “N.S.”).26 In the same number of the Archiv that his second article appeared, J. Marschak attempted to refute his original argument by showing that there is no rational economic calculation under capitalism either.27 (See also the arguments of Lange and Dobb against the rationality of economic calculation under capitalism). Von Mises asks himself whether “a criticism of economic calculation under capitalism yields anything as proof of the possibility of economic calculation under socialism. [Marschak] simply follows the example of all other socialist authors: speak as little as possible of socialism and as much as possible of the inadequacies of the capitalist system” (N.S., p. 187). Marschak then seeks to demonstrate that economic calculation is possible under syndicalism. “That has never been disputed, least of all by me. But the scientific problem to be debated is economic calculation in a socialist, not in a sydicalist commonwealth. Marschak evades this, the real, question” (N.S., p. 187).

He next disposes of O. Neurath’s new proposal for calculation in physical terms, on account of its inability to add up different goods.28 There follows a discussion of a book by the exiled Russian economist Boris Brutzkus, who extensively treats the problem of economic calculation under Soviet socialism.29 Brutzkus concurs with von Mises that without economic calculation, rational economic action under whatever kind of economic system is impossible. He also is of the opinion that the fact that production requires the combination of three factors (land, labor, and capital) retains its validity and importance under socialism. Therefore, a calculation solely in terms of labor values is incapable of providing an indication of the greater or lesser profitability of enterprises. With that the drafting of a uniform plan, the essence of Marxism, becomes impossible. Von Mises quotes Brutzkus to the effect that:

With this the socialist commonwealth, even with the entire instrumentarium of scientific theory and a gigantic statistical apparatus, is incapable of measuring the needs of its citizens and of evaluating them and is therefore not in a position to give the necessary directives to the producing units (N.S., p. 189).

Von Mises finds Brutzkus’s book the first one that deals with the problem of the Soviet Union in a scientific way. All other works are of a descriptive nature and the presentation of the facts either suffers from an uncritical hatred of the Soviet Union (from which he therefore obviously wished to dissociate himself1) or from its uncritical adulation.

By way of a final judgment on the decade’s literature on the subject (which arose out of that undeniable political triumph of uncompromising socialism, the Russian revolution), von Mises quotes the prosocialist author Cassau as saying:

All experiences of the past decade have bypassed the ideology of “proletarian socialism” without influencing it.

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