As a young socialist, Hayek read Ludwig von Mises’ 1920 paper “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth.” Mises showed that socialist central planning isn’t merely inefficient, it’s impossible. Without private property and genuine market prices, planners lack any rational way to allocate scarce resources or determine real costs and needs.Even Oskar Lange, a leading socialist in the calculation debate, effectively conceded the point. While he promoted “market socialism” with trial-and-e