The Chimera of Contracyclical Policies
6 Foreign Exchange Control and Bilateral Exchange Agreements
CHAPTER 32 Confiscation and Redistribution
1 The Philosophy of Confiscation
2 Land Reform
3 Confiscatory Taxation
Confiscatory Taxation and Risk-Taking
CHAPTER 33 Syndicalism and Corporativism
1 The Syndicalist Idea
2 The Fallacies of Syndicalism
3 Syndicalist Elements in Popular Policies
4 Guild Socialism and Corporativism
CHAPTER 34 The Economics of War
1 Total War
2 War and the Market Economy
3 War and Autarky
4 The Futility of War
CHAPTER 35 The Welfare Principle Versus the Market Principle
1 The Case Against the Market Economy
2 Poverty
3 Inequality
4 Insecurity
5 Social Justice
CHAPTER 36 The Crisis of Interventionism
1 The Harvest of Interventionism
2 The Exhaustion of the Reserve Fund
3 The End of Interventionism
PART 7 The Place of Economics in Society
CHAPTER 37 The Nondescript Character of Economics
1 The Singularity of Economics
2 Economics and Public Opinion
3 The Illusion of the Old Liberals
CHAPTER 38 The Place of Economics in Learning
1 The Study of Economics
2 Economics as a Profession
3 Forecasting as a Profession
4 Economics and the Universities
5 General Education and Economics
6 Economics and the Citizen
7 Economics and Freedom
CHAPTER 39 Economics and the Essential Problems of Human Existence
1 Science and Life
2 Economics and Judgments of Value
3 Economic Cognition and Human Action
VOLUME 4
APPENDIX
Glossary
Index
A Treatise on Economics
This edition of Mises’s Human Action is reproduced from the Foundation for Economic Education’s 4th edition which was a reprint of the 3rd 1966 Henry Regnery edition. In this book Mises cited many foreign language works in footnotes. Whenever feasible, if English-language translations are available, the editor has referenced the pertinent pages in those English translations. Also when the meaning of foreign words and phrases are not readily apparent from the context, English translations of those foreign terms have been inserted, in brackets, immediately following.
For the benefit of scholars who have read, studied, and cited Mises’s Human Action over many years, this Liberty Fund edition has been typeset, insofar as possible, to preserve the pagination of the 3rd (1966) and 4th (1996) editions, which were identical. As it was not always possible to keep the page divisions exactly the same, a careful scrutiny will detect minor discrepancies on pages 206–207, 234–235, 373–374, 404–407, 468–478, 564–565, and 689–690.
Because the vocabulary Mises used in Human Action included many words and phrases which will be unfamiliar to modern readers, this Liberty Fund Edition reproduces Percy L. Greaves, Jr.’s Mises Made Easier: A Glossary to Ludwig von Mises’ HUMAN ACTION, first published in 1974. This glossary defines and explains technical terms and historical references and includes translations of all foreign-language words and phrases in Human Action.
FOREWORD TO THE FOURTH EDITION
Mises’ contribution was very simple, yet at the same time extremely profound. He pointed out that the whole economy is the result of what individuals do. Individuals act, choose, cooperate, compete, and trade with one another. In this way Mises explained how complex market phenomena develop. Mises did not simply describe economic phenomena—prices, wages, interest rates, money, monopoly and even the trade cycle—he explained them as the outcomes of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals, each of whom was trying as best as he or she could under the circumstances to attain various wants and ends and to avoid undesired consequences. Hence the title Mises chose for his economic treatise, Human Action. Thus also, in Mises’ view, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was explainable on the basis of logic and utilitarian principles as the outcome of the countless actions of individuals.
Sprinkled throughout Mises’ scholarly and erudite explanations of market operations are many colorful descriptions of economic phenomena. For instance, on the difference between economic and political power: “A ‘chocolate king’ has no power over the consumers, his patrons. He provides them with chocolate of the best quality and at the cheapest price. He does not rule the consumers, he serves them. The consumers...are free to stop patronizing his shops. He loses his ‘kingdom’ if the consumers prefer to spend their pennies elsewhere.” (p. 300) On why people trade: “The inhabitants of the Swiss Jura prefer to manufacture watches instead of growing wheat. Watchmaking is for them the cheapest way to acquire wheat. On the other hand the growing of wheat is the cheapest way for the Canadian farmer
