Title: The Middle of the Road Leads to Socialism

Author: Ludwig Von Mises

Genre: Free Markets

Published: 2018; Original 1950

Format: Paperback of a Speech 

Pages: 18

This is a speech delivered by Mises to the University Club in New York in 1950.  It is a concise example of Mises economic logic showing how interventionism in just one sector of the economy causes labor and capital to flow to other less regulated sectors of the economy.  Thus, more of the economy is impacted than the government regulators intended and their intended effect is not reached.  So, the regulators then intervene again.   This “middle of the road” process leads to socialism.  A free market and an interventionism market are mutually exclusive.   Mises gives many examples, primarily the price controls of Germany under Hitler and Britain under Churchill and Atlee.  Both ending up in a socialist economy.  Mises also provides some intellectual history of socialist thought, most notably by Marx and Engels.

This is a quick read.  I read it at a basketball tournament between games.  If you’re new to Mises this is a good place to start.  Human Action, which I have yet to read myself, is an intimidating project for the laymen.

Yours in Liberty, Tom Freese