Our comparative analysis of the economic implications of property rights in capitalism and socialism has come to an end. I hope that I have demonstrated that a respect for ownership is of central importance for the functioning of economic calculation and in consequence also for economic and financial structures in the capitalist order. And that the introduction of a socialist order requires a radical change of the legal system (previously based on ownership) in order to impose a political dictatorship that will take over the entire economic system, and this transformation has its consequences.

It is justified to inquire whether the analysis conducted here is of any use. The topic is not a closed chapter in the history of economic thought. I believe that this work lets us reformulate the thesis set forth by Mises. Accepting that any economic efficiency requires the existence of monetary units of account, we show that, in light of “market socialism”, the original objection against the nationalization of the means of production may be formulated in a better way: socialism is an inefficient economic system because it eliminates private ownership, not because it eliminates prices.

This conclusion about the prime role of ownership in calculation is relevant to other economic analyses, such as the study of the transformation undergone by economies of the Eastern Bloc. During the transformation it was implicitly conceded that, as Mises said, an economic system must be based on the efficiency of the price mechanism, and creating it was the first and foremost task. The transformation introduced a price system to the countries of real socialism. However, although it may seem to be a partial reversal of the thought process, the problem of socialism was not the lack of prices (e.g. a lack of a “transfer ruble”) by itself, rather it was the lack of private ownership, which is a context for the emergence of market prices, which allow for economizing the entrepreneurial skills of the society. If the problem of economic efficiency is to be resolved and the clumsy socialist system reformed, the way to achieve it is not to introduce a system based on prices, but rather private ownership protected by the legal system.