Anticapitalist Mindset (Spanish Edition)

In 1954, after a lifetime of serious theoretical work in economic science, Mises turned his attention to one of the great enigmas of all time: to discover why intellectuals hate capitalism. The result is this socio-psycho-cultural analysis grounded in economic theory.

Mises explores the answers from a wide variety of angles, analyzing the nature of academic institutions, popular culture, and how vices like jealousy and envy impede people from seeing the evident benefits of economic freedom in relation to controls. His comments on the resentment of intellectuals strike a deep chord. Mises shrewdly unravels the anti-capitalist bias of contemporary fiction and popular culture in general.

In the course of his narration, he explains aspects of the market that have generally eluded even its defenders. For example, is it true that markets brutalize culture, exalting trashy novels and films at the expense of higher quality works? Mises points out that the tastes of the masses will always and everywhere be inferior to those who have been educated and cultivated to love high culture. But, he says, the glory of capitalism is that it brings to each sector what it wants and needs, and more of it than any other system. So yes, there will be more trash, but also more stupendous work. It's a matter of availability: in socialism, there is nothing available. In capitalism, the supply seems almost infinite.

His analysis is very subtle here and throughout the book. It is remarkable how his narrative applies to our time, even more than when it was written. The style of this volume is more carefree than what can be found elsewhere. In a sense, it is more exciting for this. The reader perceives that Mises has here given free rein to a lifetime of frustrations and has cast a very bright light on some dark corners of opinion.

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