A short time ago the demagogues blamed capitalism for the poverty of the masses. In a socialist system in which there is neither economic calculation nor capital accounting nor profit computation, there is no room left for managerial activities either. But as long as a socialist commonwealth is still in a position to calculate on the ground of prices determined on foreign markets, it can also utilize a quasi-managerial hierarchy to some extent. It is a poor makeshift to call any age an age of transition. In the living world there is always change.
Every age is an age of transition.
We may distinguish between social systems that can last and such as are inevitable transitory because they are self-destructive. It has already been pointed out in what sense interventionism liquidates itself and must lead to socialism of the German pattern. Some European countries have already reached this phase, and nobody knows whether or not the United States will follow suit. But as long as the United States clings to the market economy and does not adopt the system of full government control of business, the socialist economies of Western Europe will still be in a position to calculate. It is therefore in every respect very different from what it would become if all the world were to turn toward socialism.