Editing Human Action (section)

=== Part Three: Economic Calculation ===
'''Chapter 11''', "Valuation Without Calculation", discusses the gradation of means<ref name=":19">{{Cite web |title=The Gradation of the Means |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/722 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161233/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/722 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and how actors value means based on the ends they can achieve.<ref name=":19" /> Mises explains that actors must choose between various outcomes that all consist of countable supplies of different goods, and that the fundamental act of choice always involves a [[Ordinal utility|purely ordinal value judgment]].<ref name=":19" /> Mises also discusses the imaginary construction of the barter economy and the role of money.<ref name=":20">{{Cite web |title=The Barter-Fiction of the Elementary Theory of Value and Prices |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/723 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en}}</ref> Historically, economists believed that money was neutral and served only to facilitate "real" transactions, and that items exchanged in a market were of equal value.<ref name=":20" /> However, the modern subjective theory of value starts with the realization that people trade goods precisely because they value them differently.<ref name=":20" /> Mises then delves into the [[Economic calculation problem|problem of economic calculation]],<ref name=":21">{{Cite web |title=The Problem of Economic Calculation |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/724 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161150/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/724 |url-status=dead }}</ref> explaining that technology alone cannot solve the problem because each means of production is more or less suitable for a wide range of ends, and thus each means is [[Substitute good|substitutable]] for others but to varying degrees, depending on the task.<ref name=":21" /> Only money prices can solve the problem of economic calculation.<ref name=":21" /> Finally, Mises discusses the relationship between economic calculation and the market,<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=Economic Calculation and the Market |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/725 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161210/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/725 |url-status=dead }}</ref> explaining that money prices established in a market are not measurements of value, but rather historical facts that provide a guide to future action.<ref name=":22" /> Without them, all of the subsidiary concepts in accounting would be [[metaphor]]ical.<ref name=":22" />

'''Chapter 12''', "The Sphere of Economic Calculation", discusses the nature of economic calculation and its limitations.<ref name=":23">{{Cite web |title=The Limits of Economic Calculation |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/728 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161235/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/728 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Economic calculation is used to make decisions based on monetary values,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Character of Monetary Entries |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/727 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161224/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/727 |url-status=dead }}</ref> but it cannot account for things that do not exchange for money.<ref name=":23" /> Prices are in constant flux and cannot be stabilized.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Changeability of Prices |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/729 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en}}</ref> Attempts to stabilize the purchasing power of money suffer from difficulties such as the fact that prices consist of money and there is no immutable unit of value.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stabilization |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/730 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en}}</ref> The popularity of the idea of [[Price stabilization|stabilization]] comes from the desire for a secure arena outside the uncertainty of the market.<ref name=":24">{{Cite web |title=The Root of the Stabilization Idea |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/731 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en}}</ref> Historically, moneys that originated on the market, such as [[History of money|gold and silver]], were adequate for economic calculation, but government inflations changed this.<ref name=":24" />

'''Chapter 13''', "Monetary Calculation as a Tool of Action", discusses monetary calculation as a guiding principle of action in societies with a division of labor.<ref name=":25">{{Cite web |title=Monetary Calculation as a Method of Thinking |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/733 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161215/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/733 |url-status=dead }}</ref> '''Monetary calculation''' evaluates potential actions based on expected costs and revenues and past actions with the accounting of profit and loss.<ref name=":25" /> However, monetary calculation requires private property in the means of production and a universally accepted medium of exchange (i.e., money) to function.<ref name=":25" /> [[Capitalism]] is inextricably linked to monetary calculation, as the notion of capital depends on summing the market prices of the resources available for a project.<ref name=":25" /> Praxeology and economics were developed based on historical evolution of economic calculation, as only with money prices and related concepts could patterns in commercial activity be noticed.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Economic Calculation and the Science of Human Action |url=https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/734 |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Mises Institute |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230224161232/https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html/pp/734 |url-status=dead }}</ref>