Ludwig von Mises Quotes

The economic disasters of socialism and communism come from assuming a blanket superiority of those who want to run a whole economy.

The real case against socialism is not its economic inefficiency, though on all sides there is evidence of that. Much more fundamental is its basic immorality.

It doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property?

Capitalism means free enterprise, sovereignty of the consumers in economic matters, and sovereignty of the voters in political matters. Socialism means full government control of every sphere of the individuals life and the unrestricted supremacy of the government in its capacity as central board of production management.

There isn't much in the way of pure communist spirit, because the whole nation seems to be engaged in capitalistic enterprises. Much of the country still operates under government control.

First, then, State Socialism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by the government, regardless of individual choice.

No less than 50 percent of the means of production must be in the hands of the state.

When Government has a monopoly of all production and all distribution, as many Governments have, it can not permit any economic activity that competes with it.

Ownership of the means of production was an obsession to be abandoned. What mattered was the state’s control over the economy.

Under communism (socialism), there is no incentive to supply people with anything they need or want, including safety.

Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.

There is an intrinsic linkage between socialism and economic inefficiency.

The term "state socialism" is not precise. Under this term many understand an order under which a certain part of the wealth, sometimes a quite considerable part, passes into state ownership or under its control while in the great majority of cases the ownership of plants, factories, and land, remains in private hands.

Government central planning means over-riding other people's plans.

The fully planned economy, so far from being unpopular, is warmly regarded by those who know it best.

You want to keep more of the money you earn? I'm afraid that's very selfish. We shall want to tax that away. You want to own shares in your firm? We can't have that. The state has to own your firm. You want to choose where to send your children to school? That's very divisive. You'll send your child where we tell you.

The essential notion of a capitalist society ... is voluntary cooperation, voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is force.

You know the critical thing with the Communist countries is Communism, which by definition consists of control by the government.

Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.

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.

It has been a long fight to put the control of our economic system in the hands of the government.

The Reichswirtschaftsministerium ('Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs') tells the shop managers what and how to produce, at what prices and from whom to buy, at what prices and to whom to sell. It assigns every worker to his job and fixes his wages. It decrees to whom and on what terms the capitalists must entrust their funds. Market exchange is merely a sham.

The economy of communism is an economy which grows in an atmosphere of misery and want.

Contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, the Soviet economy is proof that a socialist command economy can function and even thrive.

Socialism? We've had way too much of it already.