Mises Excoriates the Marxian "Anarchy of Production" Myth

The Marxian critique censures the capitalistic social order for the anarchy and planlessness of its production methods. Allegedly, every entrepreneur produces blindly, guided only by his desire for profit, without any concern as to whether his action satisfies a need. Thus, for Marxists, it is not surprising if severe disturbances appear again and again in the form of periodical economic crises. They maintain it would be futile to fight against all this with capitalism. It is their contention that only socialism will provide the remedy by replacing the anarchistic profit economy with a planned economic system aimed at the satisfaction of needs.

The word “anarchy,” therefore, is associated with the concept of intolerable conditions. Marxian theorists delight in using such expressions. Marxian theory needs the implications such expressions give to arouse the emotional sympathies and antipathies that are likely to hinder critical analysis. The “anarchy of production” slogan has performed this service to perfection. Whole generations have permitted it to confuse them.

--Ludwig von Mises, The Causes of the Economic Crisis: And Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression, ed. Percy L. Greaves Jr., trans. Bettina Bien Greaves and Percy L. Greaves Jr. (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2006), 155-156.