Socialism

There are many socialists who have never come to grips in any way with the problems of economics, and who have made no attempt at all to form for themselves any clear conception of the conditions which determine the character of human society.

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, p. 1

One may anticipate the nature of the future socialist society. There will be hundreds and thousands of factories in operation. Very few of these will be producing wares ready for use; in the majority of cases what will be manufactured will be unfinished goods and production goods. All these concerns will be interrelated. Every good will go through a whole series of stages before it is ready for use. In the ceaseless toil and moil of this process, however, the administration will be without any means of testing their bearings. It will never be able to determine whether a given good has not been kept for a superfluous length of time in the necessary processes of production, or whether work and material have not been wasted in its completion. How will it be able to decide whether this or that method of production is the more profitable? At best it will only be able to compare the quality and quantity of the consumable end product produced, but will in the rarest cases be in a position to compare the expenses entailed in production. It will know, or think it knows, the ends to be achieved by economic organization, and will have to regulate its activities accordingly, i.e. it will have to attain those ends with the least expense. It will have to make its computations with a view to finding the cheapest way. This computation will naturally have to be a value computation. It is eminently clear, and requires no further proof, that it cannot be of a technical character, and that it cannot be based upon the objective use value of goods and services.

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, pp. 22–23

In the socialist commonwealth every economic change becomes an undertaking whose success can be neither appraised in advance nor later retrospectively determined. There is only groping in the dark. Socialism is the abolition of rational economy.

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, p. 26

The Kingdom of Christ is not of this world; socialism, on the contrary, wants to establish the kingdom of salvation on earth. Therein lies its strength, therein, however, its weakness too, from which it will collapse some day just as quickly as it has triumphed.

Nation, State, and Economy, p. 208

Under socialism production is entirely directed by the orders of the central board of production management. The whole nation is an “industrial army” . . . and each citizen is bound to obey his superior’s orders.

Planning for Freedom, p. 72

In the bureaucratic machine of socialism the way toward promotion is not achievement but the favor of the superiors.

Bureaucracy, p. 100

Socialism and democracy are irreconcilable.

A Critique of Interventionism, p. 79

The critics of the capitalistic order always seem to believe that the socialistic system of their dreams will do precisely what they think correct.

A Critique of Interventionism, pp. 156–57

A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings.

Human Action, p. 676; p. 680

Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

Human Action, p. 689; p. 693

People frequently call socialism a religion. It is indeed the religion of self-deification.

Human Action, p. 689; p. 693

Economics deals merely with the socialist plans, not with the psychological factors that impel people to espouse the religion of statolatry.

Human Action, p. 689; p. 693

Men must choose between the market economy and socialism. They cannot evade deciding between these alternatives by adopting a “middle-of-the-road” position, whatever name they may give to it.

Human Action, p. 857; p. 861

In abolishing economic calculation the general adoption of socialism would result in complete chaos and the disintegration of social cooperation under the division of labor.

Human Action, p. 857; p. 861

Socialism promises not only welfare—wealth for all—but universal happiness in love as well. This part of its program has been the source of much of its popularity.

Socialism, p. 74

Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.

Socialism, p. 105

Everything brought forward in favor of Socialism during the last hundred years, in thousands of writings and speeches, all the blood which has been spilt by the supporters of Socialism, cannot make socialism workable.

Socialism, p. 117

The attempt to reform the world socialistically might destroy civilization. It would never set up a successful socialist community.

Socialism, p. 118

Socialist society is a society of officials. The way of living prevailing in it, and the mode of thinking of its members, are determined by this fact.

Socialism, p. 165

Socialism knows no freedom of choice in occupation. Everyone has to do what he is told to do and to go where he is sent.

Socialism, p. 165

Those who do not please the holders of power are not allowed to paint or to sculpt or to conduct an orchestra. Their works are not printed or performed.

Socialism, p. 166

The nationalization of intellectual life, which must be attempted under Socialism, must make all intellectual progress impossible.

Socialism, p. 167

No censor, no emperor, no pope, has ever possessed the power to suppress intellectual freedom which would be possessed by a socialist community.

Socialism, p. 169

That Socialism would be immediately practicable if an omnipotent and omniscient Deity were personally to descend to take in hand the government of human affairs is incontestable.

Socialism, p. 183

The ideas of modern Socialism have not sprung from proletarian brains. They were originated by intellectuals, sons of the bourgeoisie, not of wage-earners.

Socialism, p. 317

No one shall be idle if I have to work; no one shall be rich if I am poor. Thus we see, again and again, that resentment lies behind all socialist ideas.

Socialism, p. 394

The impracticability of Socialism is the result of intellectual, not moral, incapacity. . . . Even angels, if they were endowed only with human reason, could not form a socialistic community.

Socialism, p. 407

In fact Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build; it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.

Socialism, p. 414

Not mythical “material productive forces,” but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend toward socialism and despotism is commonsense and moral courage.

Planned Chaos, p. 90

Socialism is unrealizable as an economic system because a socialist society would not have any possibility of resorting to economic calculation. This is why it cannot be considered as a system of society’s economic organization. It is a means to disintegrate social cooperation and to bring about poverty and chaos.

Money, Method, and the Market Process, p. 310

The socialists of Eastern Germany, the self-styled German Democratic Republic, spectacularly admitted the bankruptcy of the Marxian dreams when they built a wall to prevent their comrades from fleeing into the non-socialist part of Germany.

Money, Method, and the Market Process, p. 231