We have the socialists proclaiming their future victory over capitalism on grounds of greater prosperity -- Krushchev in 1956 shouting "WE WILL BURY YOU!" in the aftermath of tens of millions of murders by the Soviet Union and communism. But it eventually became obvious even to most intellectuals that socialism can't out-produce capitalism, so the left switched to egalitarianism, environmentalism, and now, in its current form, "social justice." Hey, if you can't make the people richer by stomping on them from above, maybe you can make them more equal--if only by stomping on the tallest ones to squash them down a bit, to lower the average (the theme of the great Rush song, The Trees).
But Mises already saw in the early 1920s that socialism simply cannot work. E.g., from 1922:
“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. The masses may long for it ever so ardently, innumerable revolutions and wars may be fought for it, still it will never be realized. Every attempt to carry it out will lead to syndicalism or, by some other route, to chaos .... Socialist writers may continue to publish books about the decay of Capitalism and the coming of the socialist millennium; they may paint the evils of Capitalism in lurid colours and contrast with them an enticing picture of the blessings of a socialist society; their writings may continue to impress the thoughtless — but all this cannot alter the fate of the socialist idea.”
That's why it's still delicious, to this day, that the USSR's commie empire collapsed in 1989-90. And it's why it's still delicious to see the former defenders of the USSR eat crow, if only reluctantly:
“It turns out, of course, that Mises was right.”
—Robert Heilbroner (1990), “After Communism”, The New Yorker, September 10: 92
—Robert Heilbroner (1990), “After Communism”, The New Yorker, September 10: 92
As I note in a 1997 publication:
"Robert Heilbroner, an avowed democratic socialist, has also admitted the triumph of capitalism and Mises’ prescience. “Less than seventy-five years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won.” Robert Heilbroner, The Triumph of Capitalism, THE NEW YORKER, Jan. 23, 1989, p. 98, 98. “It turns out, of course, that Mises was right.” Robert Heilbroner, After Communism, New Yorker, Sept. 10, 1990, p. 91, 92. See also Mark Skousen, “Just because socialism has lost does not mean that capitalism has won”: Interview with Robert L. Heilbroner, FORBES, May 27, 1991, p. 130. Heilbroner had previously dismissed Mises’s arguments, helping to spread the myth that Mises’s anti-socialist claims had been “demolished” by socialist theorists responding to Mises’s arguments. See ROBERT HEILBRONER, BETWEEN CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM 88-93 (1970). In this work, Heilbroner claimed that Mises was wrong, that socialist economic calculation was possible, and that the “superior performance” of socialism would “soon reveal the outmoded inadequacy of a free enterprise economy.”
[Kinsella, Economic Calculation Under Socialism, Appendix I to Protecting Foreign Investment Under International Law: Legal Aspects of Political Risk (1997)
http://www.stephankinsella.com/publications/ , http://www.kinsellalaw.com/…/polrisk/polrisk-files/APP01.pdf ]
http://www.stephankinsella.com/publications/ , http://www.kinsellalaw.com/…/polrisk/polrisk-files/APP01.pdf ]
See Gertrude E. Schroeder, The Dismal Fate of Soviet-Type Economies: Mises Was Right, CATO J. v.11 n.1 (Spring/Summer 1991) p. 13; Mark Skousen, “Just because socialism has lost does not mean that capitalism has
won”: Interview of Robert L. Heilbroner, FORBES, May 27, 1991, p. 130.
won”: Interview of Robert L. Heilbroner, FORBES, May 27, 1991, p. 130.
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