One might argue the Austrians were implicitly adopting a utilitarian framework: privileging the greatest good for the greatest number of people and accepting current suffering so long as net harm was reduced. But any position grounded in a utilitarian calculus could hardly claim to be value-neutral. Mises and Hayek insisted on the imperative of value-neutrality, but their positions were anything but. The values they advocated—prosperity, freedom, and above all the right of individuals to decide for themselves what is best and right for themselves—may have been defensible, but they were values,
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