Professor Mark Thornton and Jeff Deist finish Part Four of Human Action with a look at Chapters 21–24 of the book—a powerful exposition of how social cooperation and market exchange create far more harmony in society than state power. Here Mises explains how we all choose labor or leisure every day, and why wages are not the exploitative pittance socialists imagine. Land and rents have been misconstrued as special factors of production, when in fact market exchange helps us understand their prices just like any other good.
These chapters serve as a nice summation of several themes in the book, and set the stage for considering full socialism in Part Five.
Use the code HAPOD for a discount on Human Action from our bookstore: Mises.org/BuyHA.
Additional Resources
Human Action: Mises.org/HumanAction
Bob Murphy’s Study Guide to Human Action: Mises.org/Study
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