A végzetes önhittség: a szocializmus tévedései (The Fatal Conceit)

Description

The book attempts to conclusively refute all forms of Socialism by demonstrating that socialist theories are not only logically incorrect but that the premises they use to form their arguments are incorrect as well. To Hayek, the birth of civilization is due to the start of societal traditions placing importance on private property leading to expansion, trade, and eventually the modern capitalist system, also known as the extended order. Hayek argues that this demonstrates a key flaw within socialist thought, which holds that only that which is purposefully designed can be most-efficient. Moreover, statist ("socialist" is Hayek's terminology) economies cannot be efficient because of the dispersed knowledge required in a modern economy. Additionally, since modern civilization and all of its customs and traditions naturally led to the current order and are needed for its continuance, any fundamental change to the system that tries to control it is doomed to fail since it would be impossible or unsustainable in modern civilization. Price signals are the only means of enabling each economic decision maker to communicate tacit knowledge or dispersed knowledge to each other, in order to solve the economic calculation problem.