Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

Cantor’s Diagonal Argument: An Extension to the Socialist Calculation Debate — A Comment

The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
Downloads

Volume 11, No. 2 (2008)

 

In a recent article Robert P. Murphy (2006) uses Cantor's diagonal argument to prove that market socialism could not function, since it would be impossible for the Central Planning Board to complete a list containing all conceivable goods (or prices for them). In the present paper we argue that Murphy is not only wrong in claiming that the number of goods included in the list should be uncountable, but also that the number of equations/prices is irrelevant from the point of view of market socialism.

CITE THIS ARTICLE

Jablecki, Juliusz, and Mateusz Machaj. "Cantor's Diagonal Argument: An Extension to the Socialist Calculation Debate — A Comment." The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 11, No. 2 (2008): 123–131.

All Rights Reserved ©
What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. 

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member
Mises Institute