Laissez faire does not mean: Let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: Let each… — Ludwig von Mises

Laissez faire does not mean: Let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: Let each individual choose how he wants to cooperate in the social division of labor; let the consumers determine what the entrepreneurs should produce. Planning means: Let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion.

Human Action: A Treatise on Economics · 1949
★ 5.1
Provenance
Citation
Von Mises, Ludwig. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Yale University Press, 1949, ch. 27.