Ludwig von Mises was, of course, one of the great advocates of a liberal society, including its free-market economy. But here is Oskar Lange, a champion of socialist central planning, suggesting that socialists erect a monument in Mises’s honor:
“Socialists have certainly good reason to be grateful to Professor Mises, the great advocatus diaboli [devil’s advocate] of their cause. For it was his powerful challenge that forced socialists to recognize the importance of an inadequate system of economic accounting to guide the allocation of resources in a socialist economy. Even more, it was chiefly due to Professor Mises’ challenge that many socialists became aware of the very existence of such a problem … . Both as an expression of recognition for the great service rendered by him and as a memento of the prime importance of sound economic accounting, a statue of Professor Mises ought to occupy and honourable place in the great hall of the Ministry of Socialisation or of the Central Planning Board of the socialist state.”
Source: Lawrence White’s excellent The Clash of Economic Ideas (Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 47.
Related: 13 Arguments for Liberalism in 13 Minutes:
Bizarre… “And in this honored niche of our church is a statue to the man who proved us full of it.”
Maybe, using that logic, they should add a statue of Ayn Rand after that.
Good idea C. Jeffery Small. I guess Lange is trying to suggest socialists are now aware of this minor defect in their program and have addressed it.