Ludwig von Mises

  “Had he not passed away at the tender age of 92 in 1973, Ludwig von Mises would have turned 131 years old today(ed. note Sept 29th). In my humble opinion, he was the greatest social thinker of the twentieth century. In a series of breakthrough contributions like The Theory of Money and Credit, Socialism: An Economic And Sociological Analysis, Human Action (his magnum opus), and Theory and History–to say nothing of a series of smaller and no-less-insightful works like Bureaucracy and Omnipotent Government–Mises developed theories of economic growth and business cycles that are relevant today. One of the wonders of the modern world is that his major contributions are available to be perused or downloaded from the institute bearing his name or from the Liberty Fund. Today, anyone with access to an internet connection can access his works with little or no trouble. Anyone with a USB drive can carry his greatest works on a keychain.

The progress that made this possible wasn’t an accident, and it wasn’t random. Indeed, this brings us to Mises’s greatest contribution: his demonstration that socialism cannot function as a rational economic system and that private ownership of the means of production is necessary if value is going to be maximized and waste is going to be minimized in the production process.”