The socialist accounting debate is strong within economics. But looking at philosophy can shed light on the kind of understanding that Ludwig von Mises gave us, and thereby sharpen our understanding of socialism and its problems. It shows what we can know about socialism through conceptual analysis, and what such analysis cannot tell us.
Philosophy makes it clear that there are analytic truths, which explain that something is true because of its meaning. In order to see what is mathematically true, we need to engage in concept analysis, that is, to investigate the concept and examine what it entails. After doing this, we can look at the results of the concept. UP means uq if it is impossible for up to be true and not uq, that is, that uq is not. So the definitions also show us what is really true. But why all this debate about analytical facts? They occupy a high position because they are indisputable and do not depend on proven facts.
Let’s turn to Socialism, which is an economic system. The analysis of the concept of socialism reveals that it is an economic system where there is collective ownership of the means of production, which is equivalent to a system where a group (or another person of this group) organizes the use of these means. of production, i.e. the organized economy.
With this in mind, we can turn to prices. Conceptual analysis reveals that prices are exchange rates (at least in the way Mises understood the concept and considered it appropriate). It follows that you cannot have prices (of the means of production) if you have no exchange—the rate of exchange exists only when exchange takes place. But if there is collective ownership, this means that there can be no exchange, since exchange requires that there be at least two groups each in charge of a certain method of production. It follows that in socialism there can be no values. With prices, putting a point well, by definition, can only arise when people exchange, which requires them to have several goods.
Therefore, it is an analytical understanding of socialism and values that there can be no values in a socialist system. There is nothing concrete or speculative about this idea. Rather, abstract analysis shows that there can be no values in socialism. To the extent that my analysis is correct, it follows that this is not open to debate – all that can be done is to show that I have erred in my theoretical analysis. But if my analysis is correct, it provides an invaluable and irrefutable understanding of what socialism and prices are, and what comes next.
It is for this reason that Mises criticizes, among others, Karl Polanyi for his failure to see clearly what socialism is and the instability between the socialist and syndicalist systems. “A feature in the [Polanyi’s] construction lies in the secrecy with which it tries to avoid the core question: socialism or syndicalism?”, wrote Mises in response to Polanyi.
However, since it has been established that there can be no values in socialism, it is necessary to check the result of such lack of values. This is not, or at least not an analytical question. The consequences of the absence of the required prices of the factors of production in the organized economy depend on the conditions affecting the ability or characteristics. This much was already clear He misses his 1920 paper.
It will not be difficult for an economically isolated farmer to distinguish between the expansion of grazing and the development of work in the hunting area. In such a case the production processes involved are short and the costs and available funds can be easily measured. But it is a very different story if … the necessary conditions for the success of businesses to be started are diverse, so that one cannot just use a vague estimate, but requires precise measurements and some judgment on the economic issues involved. .
What else does his admission that in simple cases the absence of values have no or only a negative effect mean? Obviously, then, we need to examine experimental conditions to test the effects of missing values. For this purpose, the power of analysis to understand that no values are sufficient.
Max Molden is a PhD student at the University of Hamburg. He worked with the European Students for Liberty and Prometheus – Das Freiheitsinstitut. He publishes regularly in Der Freydenker.
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