It’s impossible for socialism to work because it can’t calculate.  Socialism is the government owning all property.  There aren’t various definitions.  I use the term statism because it also includes fascism.  Fascism is government control of property.  Rarely is a system one or the other.  Nor do many people advocate for one or the other.  Statism includes socialism and fascism, both impossible.  Statism is impossible.

Calculation is needed to understand what is happening in the sphere of exchanges.  It’s impossible to do away with it.  Statism will do away with it.  The true property owner can only tell if an industry is profiting or suffering losses.  That will tell the entrepreneur to make changes, move funds into one industry, maybe get out of another.  This is only possible with calculation.  It’s impossible to calculate under statism.

The market changes daily.  Government can’t keep up with these changes.  Neither by owning the property nor controlling it.  No amount of schemes will allow them to keep up with changes the way the real property owner can.  Values would have to be rigid, but they still can’t calculate profits and losses.  There is no technological advancement if values are rigid.  Change is contradictory to statism.

Humans would turn into automatons if change was removed.  The state is blindfolded without entrepreneurship.  Rather than funding one industry or another based on how satisfied consumers are, industries are funded by coercion.  A business must convince you for your money.  The state just compels you to give them money—rather, they take it.  This is the only organization that operates like this.

It’s impossible to calculate under statism.  No scheme can ever make it work.  The definition will try to be changed.  They’ll say “that wasn’t real socialism” when you point to history.  It doesn’t matter who’s in charge.  No mortal will be able to calculate.  All schemes will fail.  Action is natural with humans.  They can’t be turned into chess pieces.  The law of the market is inescapable.  No brand of statism will ever work.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; Human Action