Archive for Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) was a long-time adviser to FEE and the author of Human Action along with many other pathbreaking books in Austrian economics, history, and social philosophy.
Time
Men value fractions of time of the same length in a different way according as they are nearer or remoter from the instant of the actor’s decision. Acting man does not appraise time periods merely with regard to their dimension. His choices regarding the removal of future uneasiness are directed by the categories sooner and [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 1 comment | ContinuedTheory
The ultimate yardstick of an economic theorem’s correctness or incorrectness is solely reason unaided by experience. There is no such thing as a mere recording of unadulterated facts apart from any reference to theories. As soon as two events are recorded together or integrated into a class of events, a theory is operative. The question [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedTaxes
The idea of social justice implied in the ability-to-pay principle is that of perfect financial equality of all citizens. The only logical stopping place of the ability-to-pay doctrine is at the complete equalization of incomes and wealth by confiscation of all incomes and fortunes above the lowest amount in the hands of anyone. Continuous change [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedTariffs
The interests of every firm can be favored by all kinds of privileges granted to it by government. But if privileges are granted to the same extent also to other firms, every businessman loses—not only in his capacity as a consumer, but also in his capacity as a buyer of raw materials, half-finished products, machines [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedStatistics
Statistics is a method for the presentation of historical facts. It is not economics and cannot produce economic theorems and theories. There is no such thing as quantitative economics. All economic quantities we know about are data of economic history. Reasonable businessmen are fully aware of the uncertainty of the future. They realize that economists [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedSpeculation
There are in this world no such things as stability and security and no human endeavors are powerful enough to bring them about. Every action refers to an unknown future. It is in this sense always a risky speculation. Man is faced with the fact that there are fellow men acting on their own behalf [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedSociety
Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner’s success as a means for the attainment of his own. Social cooperation has nothing to do with personal love or a general commandment to love one another. People do not cooperate because they love or should love one another. They cooperate [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedSocialism
Private ownership of the means of production (market economy or capitalism) and public ownership of the means of production (socialism or communism or “planning”) can never be confounded with one another; they cannot be mixed or combined; no gradual transition leads from one of them to the other; they are mutually incompatible. With regard to [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 1 comment | ContinuedSex
We interpret animal behavior on the assumption that the animal yields to the impulse which prevails at the moment. But it is different with man. Man is a being capable of subduing his instincts. A man does not ravish every female that stirs his senses; he does not devour every piece of food that entices [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedSelfishness
What a man does is always aimed at an improvement of his own state of satisfaction. In this sense—and in no other—we are free to use the term selfishness and to emphasize that action is necessarily always selfish. Even an action directly aiming at the improvement of other people’s conditions is selfish. The actor considers [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 1 comment | ContinuedReligion
Praxeology and economics are not qualified to deal with the transcendent and metaphysical aspects of any doctrine. But, on the other hand, no appeal to any religious or metaphysical dogmas or creeds can invalidate the theorems and theories concerning social cooperation as developed by logically correct praxeological reasoning. It would, however, be a serious mistake [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 2 comments | ContinuedReason
Man has only one tool to fight error: reason. Man uses reason in order to choose between the incompatible satisfactions of conflicting desires. Reason is an ultimate given and cannot be analyzed or questioned by itself. The very existence of human reason is a non-rational fact. The only statement that can be predicated with regard [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedPublic Opinion
The supremacy of public opinion determines not only the singular role that economics occupies in the complex of thought and knowledge. It determines the whole process of human history. New ideas and innovations are always an achievement of uncommon men. But these great men cannot succeed in adjusting social conditions to their plans if they [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedProfit and Loss
Profits are the driving force of the market economy. The greater the profits, the better the needs of the consumers are supplied. For profits can only be reaped by removing discrepancies between the demands of the consumers and the previous state of production activities. He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits. In [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedPrices
The ultimate source of the determination of prices is the value judgments of the consumers. Each individual, in buying or not buying and in selling or not selling, contributes his share to the formation of market prices. But the larger the market is, the smaller is the weight of each individual’s contribution. Thus the structure [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 1 comment | ContinuedPraxeology
It is no longer possible to define neatly the boundaries between the kind of action which is the proper field of economic science in the narrower sense, and other action. Acting man is always concerned with both “material” and “ideal” things. He chooses between alternatives. No matter whether they are to be classified as material [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | ContinuedMorality
Compliance with the moral rules which the establishment, preservation, and intensification of social co-operation require is not seen [by the economist] as a sacrifice to a mythical entity, but as the recourse to the most efficient methods of action, as a price expended for the attainment of more highly valued returns. The social division of [...]
1Sep1981 | Ludwig von Mises | 0 comments | Continued-
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Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
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For Equality; Against Privilege
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