It is not me who says so but rather my colleague of the University Of Alcalá de Henares, professor Huerta de Soto, demonstrates it in 446 intense, agile and documented pages in his last book Socialism, Economic Calculation and Managerial Function published by Unión Editorial.

He explains first in a broad, original way and with a wealth of nuances the exercise of entrepreneurship as a continuous alertness that makes it possible for all human beings (not only those classified officially as businessmen) to discover and realize what happens around them. Next he speaks about socialism as something that builds obstacles to that personal exercise of free continuous perspicacity and he defines it as all "systems of institutional aggression to the free exercise of the managerial function." As a consequence of this coercion, he who in another way (whether he is a businessman or not) would have freely exercised his vital creative capacity with regard to social and personal improvement, to avoid greater damage, is forced to act in a different way to how he would have acted in other circumstances. He therefore modifies his behaviour adapting it to the goals of that or those that coerce him, so that that certain aggression or coercion prevents him from developing his own activity that by essence and in a more intimate way corresponds to him. Pyramidal pressure exercised from the highest of state power in turn distorts the clarity of the goals that each one discovers and deforms the means that, in accordance with his information and knowledge, believes or considers that are within his reach.

The defenders of the utopian socialist ideal believe to different degrees, with apparent frank good intentions that hide a certain degree of arrogance, that the system of social coordination, will not be perturbed by the existence of repetitive, methodical and organized institutional aggression Not only this but rather, on the contrary, that it will be made much more effective when that systematic coercion is exercised by a managing organ that is supposedly endowed with some valuations and knowledge (as much for the goals as for the means) much better quantitatively and qualitatively than those that the coerced actors can possess on a personal level. Convinced that their goals and means are the best for the group of citizens that they represent, they emit bureaucratic commands that are deliberate creations of the managing organ that institutional coercion exercises, and by means of those it is sought to force all the actors to fulfil or pursue, not their particular goals, but the goals of he who exercises government or control.

Faced with that deliberate and rationalist creation of who organizes institutionally, of which the socialist mandate consists, the author defends the Hayekian law concept as an abstract norm of general contents that is applied equally to all human beings without bearing in mind any particular circumstance and establishing a framework where it is possible that each citizen believes and discovers new original knowledge and information being able to take advantage of that, pursuing his particular goals in cooperation with others.

The impossibility of economic and social coordination of the socialist system is demonstrated because each one of the people that interact with each other constituting society, possesses dispersed practical, intellectual and intuitive information of an exclusive character, that is mostly of an unspoken nature and that is logically impossible to conceive its possible transmission to the managing organ. The almost infinite added volume of practical information felt and managed by each individual is of such magnitude that it cannot be acquired by the managing organs. Not only this but also, furthermore, when it is not possible to transmit itself to that socialist centre because of its non-articulate character, it is logically absurd to think that a socialist system can work. Also each one of those millions of people, when performing their managerial function on a daily basis, that is to say when acting, constantly create and discover new information. Therefore it is difficult for the information or knowledge that has not yet been created to be transmitted to that central nomenclature, however sophisticated it is, but rather it arises as a result of correct social process and to the extent that this is not attacked and coerced.

I just wanted to outline some points of an undoubtedly valuable contemporary work and that opens a fan of colourful future possibilities if we want to go into the novelty of the authentic Modern Economy. It demonstrates that socialism is uneconomical and the centre of the summarized argument can possibly be found in a note at the foot of page 101: "Perhaps in the root or the very foundation of socialism man's atavistic desire to want to be like God is hidden, or better, of believing that he is God, and therefore that he can have a lot of knowledge or information at his disposal much greater than what is humanly possible." It is worthwhile reading these ideas in today's Spain.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Gaceta de los Negocios, Tuesday 6th July 1993