Von Mises
Ludwig von Mises argued that ownership and control over the means of production belongs to private firms and can only be sustained by means of consumer choice, exercised daily in the marketplace. "The capitalistic social order", he claimed, therefore "is an economic democracy in the strictest sense of the word". Critics of Von Mises claim that consumers only vote on the value of the product when they make a purchase—they are not participating in the management of firms, or voting on how the profits are to be used.