Private Property or Several Control: A Rejoinder

ABSTRACT

Following Mises’s foundational paper, ‘Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth’, first published in 1920, writers in the Austrian tradition have argued that socialism is impossible, because under socialism there would be no private property in the means of production, and without that private property economic calculation could not take place. In the article ‘Economic Calculation: Private Property or Several Control?’, published in this journal in 2015, I argued that this was mistaken. Not private property, but several control, was required for economic calculation, and since several control is consistent with public ownership, this argument for the impossibility of socialism fails. Another article, ‘Private Property and Economic Calculation: A Reply to Andy Denis’, by Bylund and Manish, published in this issue of the Review of Political Economy, defends the traditional interpretation of Austrian reasoning, contending that my argument fails. My rejoinder re-states the issues, addressing, and, ultimately rejecting, the Bylund and Manish critique.

KEYWORDS:

• Austrian economics
• economic calculation
• ownership and control
• private property
• several property
• socialist calculation debate

JEL CODES:

• B13
• B14
• B41
• B53

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Andy Denis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5925-203X