From The Quotable Mises — surrounding passage

The individual measures that it applies do not achieve the results sought. They bring about a state of affairs, which—from the viewpoint of its advocates themselves—is much more undesirable than the previous state they intended to alter. Bureaucracy , p. 119 Interventionism cannot be considered as an economic system destined to stay. It is a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism by a series of successive steps. Planning for Freedom , p. 28

“The middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments.”

Planning for Freedom , pp. 32–33 The effect of its interference is that people are prevented from using their knowledge and abilities, their labor and their material means of production in the way in which they would earn the highest returns and satisfy their needs as much as possible. Such interference makes people poorer and less satisfied. Human Action , p. 736; p.