Mikk
Interesting link.

In a nutshell, the guy is saying that economic calculation comprehends only things exchanged against money, i.e. economic goods, but not other important things which are not economic goods, such as air, love, beauty etc.

Neither Mises nor I ever denied this; nor ever claimed that capitalist production is more ‘efficient’ in dealing with such so-called externalities. The claim is only that it’s more economical, i.e. in rationalizing the use of economic goods.

Neither that article nor you have shown how any alternative system would be in an better position.

The author says that prices ignore “real” costs, for example pollution, resource depletion etc. But those real costs themselves ignore the underlying values for which they are important, namely, whatever human purpose or value is being served by trying to do something. Those values are subjective. They are not *in* the air or the earth itself, any more than the value of gold is in the gold.

The fact that such values are outside economic calculation does not reduce the usefulness of economic calculation because people can value those things directly in themselves – love, beauty, one’s grandmother, and clean air. (Just because they don’t value them the way that author wants doesn’t mean they’re not valuing them, or they’re not valuing them according to their ‘real’ value, which is no more knowable to him than it is to them. It means they’re not valuing according to *his subjective values.*)

How is a socialist society going to know what those ‘non-economic’ values are, any better than a capitalist society? How is it going to bring them into account any better than is done under private ownership?

What does “workers' self-management within a framework of communal ownership” really mean? Who owns what? Who decides what is to be produced? How do they know who wants it? Why would anyone innovate? How are that in any better position to ensure equality than private owners? What if people don’t want to be part of a commune or a syndicate? And if equality is achieved why would human society exist?