Production

Production is not an end in itself. Its purpose is to serve consumption.

On the Manipulation of Money and Credit, p. 178

The role played by man in production always consists solely in combining his personal forces with the forces of Nature in such a way that the cooperation leads to some particular desired arrangement of material. No human act of production amounts to more than altering the position of things in space and leaving the rest to Nature.

The Theory of Money and Credit, p. 97

Neither the entrepreneurs nor the farmers nor the capitalists determine what has to be produced. The consumers do that.

Human Action, p. 270; p. 270

The actual world is a world of permanent change. Population figures, tastes, and wants, the supply of factors of production and technological methods are in a ceaseless flux. In such a state of affairs there is need for a continuous adjustment of production to the change in conditions.

Bureaucracy, p. 28

The truth is that the characteristic feature of capitalism was and is mass production for the needs of the masses.

Planning for Freedom, p. 170

It is manifestly contrary to the interest of the consumers to prevent the most efficient entrepreneurs from expanding the sphere of their activities up to the limit to which the public approves of their conduct of business by buying their products.

Human Action, p. 802; p. 806

To drink coffee I do not need to own a coffee plantation in Brazil, an ocean steamer, and a coffee roasting plant, though all these means of production must be used to bring a cup of coffee to my table. Sufficient that others own these means of production and employ them for me.

Socialism, p. 31

Society is best served when the means of production are in the possession of those who know how to use them best.

Socialism, p. 66

Production is not something physical, material, and external; it is a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon.

Human Action, p. 141; p. 144

Its [production’s] essential requisites are not human labor and external natural forces and things, but the decision of the mind to use these factors as means for the attainment of ends. What produces the product are not toil and trouble in themselves, but the fact that the toiling is guided by reason. The human mind alone has the power to remove uneasiness.

Human Action, pp. 141–42; pp. 141–42