Rating: 
Summary: Utterly amazing; this book may change your life
Review: I find Ludwig von Mises to be a tragic figure. Why?1. He expresses himself in direct and to the point language; when speaking of syndicalism, "in short, it is nonsense." 2. He writes about things that are terribly important, today and always, yet not so easy to understand. 3. He can't help but judge nonsensical ideas on the merits. No half-measures here. Don't expect him to go easy on your favorite ideology. 4. He expresses himself in old-fashioned language ("men" instead of "persons" or "people" or...) and uses expressions that no sane author would use today ("the white man") And he says what he thinks: Western society is superior to Eastern society because... 5. He sneaks in little quotations in Latin and Greek here and there and uses words not in some dictionaries. (Look up at least 'autarky,' 'praxeology,' 'catallactics,' 'epigone,' 'apodictic' before reading this book.) In short, very few people today will ever read "Human Action." I am sure there are people that will refuse to read it because von Mises calls homosexuality a "perversion" (why he says that, I don't know, but it has no effect on the economic arguments) And that's too bad. Very much too bad. Mises clearly strongly believes he's right. It certainly colors his writing. But try as you may, you won't find it coloring his reasoning. His personal opinions on economic matters are clearly the *product* of his reasoning, not the other way around. There are a lot of people that believe that government intervention is necessary for a healthy economy. If you are one of them, you have to read this book. Once you have read and understood Mises's arguments, if you still believe that the government has any constructive role to play by "fixing" things wrong in the economy, I want to hear about it. (F. A. Hayek, of all people, once believed in socialism, too. Until he read Mises's "Socialism.") Mises's argument goes like this: First, capitalism clearly works. The more capitalistic a country is, the wealthier it is---you could even say, the more capitalistic a country is, the wealthier its *poor* are. Secondly, socialism worked in small, self-sufficient medieval households, but it can't possibly work in a large industrial society. Why? Because the planners can't plan adequately without the help of a marketplace to set prices. Thirdly and lastly---and this is the nail in the coffin for the wannabe socialists that get their opinions splattered all over the newspapers---any "in between" attempt at combining socialistic ideals with a capitalistic society must inevitably fail. Why? Because any interference with the market has the opposite effects to what the interferers themselves wanted!
(Fiasco policies that fall into this category are rent control, minimum wages, overtime rules, compulsory insurances of different kinds, Keynesian printing of money, etc. etc.---in short, almost every measure that "progressive" politicians use to "help" us.) Mises is famous for having started the "socialist calculation debate," and there's even a book about it out there now. Critics of Mises's position in the calculation debate *must* read "Human Action." The basic point that Mises makes here---and he never makes it entirely explicitly---is that prices are ephemeral one-time phenomena that are controlled by buyers and sellers (their "human action"); prices are historical data, past information; prices do not control people, they are controlled by people. It's utterly impossible to predict the future price of any good better than that of any other good. The reason is that we don't know today what people will want tomorrow. The idea of a "demand curve" is just an abstraction useful for teaching the simplest principles of supply and demand to college students. Once you understand this simple but subtle point, Mises's position becomes clear. The planners can't plan, not because they can't calculate today's prices in order to satisfy today's demands, but because they can't figure out how to rig the prices so as to meet the consumers of today and those of ten years from now and everybody inbetween! The same idea of the unpredictability of prices applies to Mises's argument that macroeconomic indicators (such as the CPI) are totally useless: either they tell you nothing at all, or else they tell you what's completely obvious. Using the CPI to answer the question "has Sam's purchasing power increased over the last year" is a bit like trying to answer the question "is it hot in Los Angeles" by referring to the average temperature in the United States. In short, this book collects a remarkable set of truly amazing insights. Everyone that can handle it should---must!---read it, and read it carefully. I hope history remembers this book, because yes, it may one day, when everyone understands its contents, be considered one of the most important of the 20th century. If civilization survives that long, that is.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: It is unfortunately possible to get a Ph.d in Economics these days and never read Ludwig von Mises--and anyone of the free-market Austrian School. That's not only a shame; it's a disaster. His and other Austrian's books--such as Mark Skousen's much-easier, "Economics on Trial"--have destroyed socialism beyond all hope of intellectual resurrection. Yet in reality it still keeps rising from the near-dead. Santayana was right: "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." Mises's magnum opus is a must-read for any serious student of economics.
Rating:
Summary: Essential treatise for free-market supporters
Review: Ludwig von Mises's _Human Action_ is essential reading for any supporter of free-market economics (and it might be nice if some of the _enemies_ of economic liberty read it too). Mises's plan here is to place the science of economics on a firm axiomatic foundation. In particular, his aim is to derive economic theory from the axiom that (my paraphrase) human beings act to achieve ends under conditions of scarcity in a world in which finite and delimitable causes have finite and delimitable effects. Two other major treatises will be of interest to readers of this work: Murray Rothbard's _Man, Economy and State_, and George Reisman's _Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics_. I also agree with the other reviewer who suggests reading Carl Menger's _Principles of Economics_. Mises describes that work as the book that made an economist of him, and it's a much quicker read than any of the three major treatises I've named. Also of great interest: Mises's _The Theory of Money and Credit_, described by Murray Rothbard as the best book on money ever written. And so it is.
Rating:
Summary: A gigantic opus
Review: One day, this book will be considered one of the most influential books ever written. Truly amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Prophetic
Review: Review from Investor's Business Daily: March 6, 1999 Acting Human Can great books live on, even in the Internet age? The re-release of an old classic argues yes. Every now and then a book comes along that both sums up and extends the collected wisdom of some science. ''Human Action,'' by Ludwig von Mises, was such a book. Fifty years after it first came out, it is still one of the classics of economics. Mises is probably best known as the mentor of Nobel prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek, and as the father of the modern ''Austrian'' school of economics. ''Human action is purposeful behavior,'' wrote Mises. That may seem obvious. But many social scientists have treated man as some sort of automaton, responding in some programmed way to whatever conditions he faces. Mises said man is a species that plans and chooses his actions. Man thinks. And the actions a man takes are a ''conscious adjustment to the state of the universe that determines his life.'' Why care? Let's say the Federal Reserve expands the money supply whenever unemployment goes up. The theory behind this is that the Fed can stimulate the economy by artificially boosting demand. Or course, this will also lead to inflation. But if people are rational, they'll notice this policy and act in response. Every time unemployment goes up, firms will raise their prices and workers will demand higher wages. So pumping up the money supply will only affect prices, not real output. Robert Lucas, a University of Chicago economist, popularized this theory of ''rational expectations'' in the 1970s. He later won a Nobel prize for his work. But Mises had discovered the basic insights of rational expectations some 30 years earlier. Since individuals are free to choose their actions, there's always an element of uncertainty in economics. That's why attempts to make specific predictions about the economy are bound to fail. Mises resisted modern economics' heavy reliance on mathematical models and attempts to model itself after physics. Such efforts were bound to fail, he said. They overlooked the uncertainty that human choice brings to economic activity. And he said that economists' focus on models in which the economy is already in a state of equilibrium overlooks what's truly key: the actions that bring supply and demand into equilibrium. Unlike other economists, Mises rejected the use of the theory of economic man, or Homo economicus, in economics. That model holds that man is driven solely by economic motives, the desire to make the greatest material or economic profit. Mises thought that was too narrow. He preferred to study man as he really acted, with a multitude of motivations. Still, that doesn't mean that men don't often act for economic motives. Nor does Mises' belief that the future is uncertain mean that it is completely unpredictable. For instance, most economists would say that, all things equal, raising the minimum wage will boost unemployment. Mises would have no quarrel with that sort of prediction. But he'd look skeptically on attempts to predict exactly how much such an increase would affect unemployment in the real world. There are few economic subjects Mises doesn't touch on in ''Human Action.'' Mises clearly explains a range of complex economic ideas -from inflation to monopoly to government interference in the market. He examines and debunks Marxist notions of class conflict and capitalist exploitation of workers. And he outlines a powerful theory of the causes of business cycles. But Mises goes beyond pure economics, defending the idea of science and logic itself. His criticisms of those who hold there is no such thing as objective truth seem relevant today when many in the academy decry reason as a tool used to oppress others. Few books remain in print for 50 years. And few still speak to the vital debates of the day. ''Human Action'' is one of those.
Rating:
Summary: Review should give credit where it's due
Review: Reviewer Chris Brown writes below: "I agree completely with Lewellyn [sic] Rockwell, who writes on The Daily Objectivist website:" Hold on a sec. The Llewelyn Rockwell piece he goes on to quote was originally published, not on the Daily Objectivist, but on the website of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Bad enough that Brown has written a handful of reviews which really do nothing but plump for the Daily Objectivist; is it necessary to be dishonest too? Brown continues, "You can read the rest of this review at The Daily Objectivist . . ." Actually, forget the Daily Objectivist (and Objectivism too!) -- you can read the book itself at the Mises Institute's website. They've made the entire text available online.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Simply the best, most comprehensive study of human action ever recorded. It is grounded in rational axioms and constructs an encompassing worldview around them.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Simply the best, most comprehensive study of human action ever recorded. It is grounded in rational axioms and constructs an encompassing worldview around them.
Rating:
Summary: Human action, not plans, make the world go 'round
Review: Starting from two irrefutable premises 1) Humans act, 2) They act in order to improve their current condition, Mises builds an astounding edifice that demonstrates the supremacy of what is called laissez faire capitalism. Only each individual knows how best to meet his or her own needs. All the other isms which require or depend on government intervention to one degree or another are doomed to ultimately fail because of this. This is not an easy book to read but worth the effort. Mises smashes what passes for economic reasoning by most journalists, lawyers, and politicians through the use of logic based on sound economic theory.
Rating:
Summary: Speaking With the Gods
Review: That is surely where Von Mises is - conversing amiably with the gods in his masterful, rational, clear and refined manner. The man was a wonder himself. From the classically liberal European tradition of the turn of the century, he fought valiantly to establish economics on a rational basis with rules, laws, and theorems - all based on "human action". He builds an elaborate system from axioms to dizzying heights of eloquent logic. He is important not because he championed material wealth - Marx did that - but for his recognition that this wealth rested on an edifice composed by people acting in their own self interest. Despite his dry style and subject matter, his writings were paeans of praise for humanity's soul. His theories (naturally) involved a synthesis with other arenas, notably philosophy, politics, morality, government, and aesthetics. It is on the subject of human freedom that he made an indelible mark by demonstrating that laissez-faire capitalism is not only the best in terms of economics but also by far the one that bequeaths the greatest freedom to the individual. It has been stated before - and was repeated in "Human Action" - there is a direct correlation between a nation's economic freedom and its political freedom. It is no accident that the US, Europe and some Southeast Asian nations are not only the richest in terms of material wealth but also in terms of human potential. What astonishes one are the public pronouncements from those who willingly choose systems that limit both wealth and freedom. While professional nitwits continue to blast Western culture, millions risk life and limb just to reach our shore. Am I the only one noticing the one-way flow of traffic from such vacation paradises as Cuba, Vietnam, China, Sudan and Syria? This book should be required reading in all high school - but then that would be a coercive action that the author would disdain.
| 
