Human Action

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Human Action: A Treatise on Economics betragtes som den østrigske økonom Ludwig von Mises’ hovedværk. I det præsenterer han det laissez-fair kapitalistiske system som et udslag af praxeologien, eller den rationelle analyse af menneskelige handlinger, og viser dermed, hvordan Den østrigske skoles økonomiske teori er funderet.

Mises pointe er, at hele det økonomiske system ikke fungerer som et udslag af statslig kontrol eller styring, men derimod alene som et resultat af almindelige menneskelige handlinger. For Mises er menneskelige handlinger og valg, samarbejde, konkurrence og handel grundlaget for det komplekse marked og han forklarer med udgangspunkt heri, blandt andet hvordan priser dannes, løn fastsættes, renter falder og stiger og hvorfor økonomien oplever konjunkturcyklusser. Fordi Mises fokuserer på årsagen til at økonomiske fænomener opstår, afviser han af samme årsag brugen af positivistiske argumenter indenfor økonomien.

Ifølge Mises, var det den økonomiske ulighed mellem mennesker, som var hovedårsagen til, at et samfund kunne hænge sammen:

The liberal champions of equality under the law were fully aware of the fact that men are born unequal and that it is precisely their inequality that generates social cooperation and civilization. Equality under the law was in their opinion not designed to correct the inexorable facts of the universe and to make natural inequality disappear. It was, on the contrary, the device to secure for the whole of mankind the maximum of benefits it can derive from it.... Equality under the law is in their eyes good because it best serves the interests of all. It leaves it to the voters to decide who should hold public office and to the consumers to decide who should direct production activities.^[1]

Mises argumenterer for, at en fri markedsøkonomi ikke blot er mere effektivt end en blandings- eller planøkonomi, men at markedsøkonomien også er grundlaget for den menneskelige civilisation. I sit tidligere værk Socialisme, havde Mises bevist, at en hvilken som helst socialistisk økonomi altid ville være mindre efficient end en kapitalistisk.

Human Action blev udgivet på tysk i 1940 under titlen Nationalökonomie: Theorie Des Handelns und Wirthschaftens.

Part One: Human Action
I. Acting Man
II. The Epistemological Problems of the Sciences of Human Action
III. Economics and the Revolt Against Reason
IV. A First Analysis of the Category of Action
V. Time
VI. Uncertainty
VII. Action Within the World

Part Two: Actions Within the Framework of Society
VIII. Human Society
IX. The Role of Ideas
X. Exchange Within Society

Part Three: Economic Calculation
XI. Valuation Without Calculation
XII. The Sphere of Economic Calculation
XIII. Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action

Part Four: Catallactics or Economics of the Market Society
XIV. The Scope and Method of Catallactics
XV. The Market
XVI. Prices
XVII. Indirect Exchange
XVIII. Action in the Passing of Time
XIX. The Rate of Interest
XX. Interest, Credit Expansion, and the Trade Cycle
XXI. Work and Wages
XXII. The Nonhuman Original Factors of Production
XXIII. The Data of the Market
XXIV. Harmony and Conflict of Interests

Part Five: Social Cooperation Without a Market
XXV. The Imaginary Construction of a Socialist Society
XXVI. The Impossibility of Economic Calculation Under Socialism

Part Six: The Hampered Market Economy
XXVII. The Government and the Market
XXVIII. Interference by Taxation
XXIX. Restriction of Production
XXX. Interference with the Structure of Prices
XXXI. Currency and Credit Manipulation
XXXII. Confiscation and Redistribution
XXXIII. Syndicalism and Corporativism
XXXIV. The Economics of War
XXXV. The Welfare Principle Versus the Market Principle
XXXVI. The Crisis of Interventionism

Part Seven: The Place of Economics in Society
XXXVII. The Nondescript Character of Economics
XXXVIII. The Place of Economics in Learning
XXXIX. Economics and the Essential Problems of Human Existence

• Ludwig von Mises
• Den østrigske skole
• Praxeology

• Frit tilgængelig udgave af Human Action af Ludwig von Mises (PDF 4. udgave)