There have been many efforts over the years to develop a “third way” of managing social cooperation, a path that will take advantage of the efficiency of the market process while controlling its “excesses.” The fascist movement in Italy, National Socialism in Germany, and the New Deal in America were all examples of the search for that path. However, all attempts to improve market outcomes run into the same problem that cripples the attempt to create a socialist society, although to a lesser extent. Outside of market prices, based on private property, there is no way to rationally calculate how valuable an undertaking’s contribution to society’s well-being is. Arbitrary numbers can be assigned to gauge the costs and benefits of, for instance, a new environmental regulation, but they are just guesses. Only real market prices convey information on the freely chosen values of acting man. Mises pointed out that all market interventions are likely to produce results that are undesirable even from the point of view of those forwarding the intervention. That is because the market participants are not supine in the face of interference with their wishes, and will act contrary to the intent of the interventionists.
— Gene Callahan
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