Editing Economic calculation problem (section)

=== Steady-state economy ===
[[Joan Robinson]] argued that in a [[steady-state economy]] there would be an effective abundance of means of production and so markets would not be needed.<ref>{{cite book|first=Joan|last=Robinson|author-link=Joan Robinson|title=An Essay on Marxism|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|year=1966|isbn=0-333-02081-2}}</ref> Mises acknowledged such a theoretical possibility in his original tract when he said the following: "The static state can dispense with economic calculation. For here the same events in economic life are ever recurring; and if we assume that the first disposition of the static socialist economy follows on the basis of the final state of the competitive economy, we might at all events conceive of a socialist production system which is rationally controlled from an economic point of view."<ref name="Mises"/> However, he contended that stationary conditions never prevail in the real world. Changes in economic conditions are inevitable; and even if they were not, the transition to socialism would be so chaotic as to preclude the existence of such a steady-state from the start.<ref name="Mises"/>

The purpose of the price mechanism is to allow individuals to recognise the [[opportunity cost]] of decisions. In a state of abundance, there is no such cost, which is to say that in situations where one need not economize, economics does not apply, e.g. areas with abundant fresh air and water. [[Otto Neurath]] and [[Hillel Ticktin]] argued that with detailed use of real unit accounting and demand surveys a planned economy could operate without a capital market in a situation of [[Abundance (economics)|abundance]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ticktin|first=Hillel|editor=Bertell Ollman|editor-link=Bertell Ollman|title=Market Socialism: The Debate Among Socialists|year=1997|publisher=Routledge|location=New York; London|isbn=0-415-91967-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/marketsocialismd0000unse}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Neurath|first=Otto|title=Economic Writings: Selections 1904–1945|year=2004|publisher=Kluwer Academic|location=Dordrecht; London|isbn=1-4020-2273-5}}</ref>