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Every change in conditions will make necessary some change in the use of resources, in the direction and kind of human activities, in habits and practices. And each change in the actions of those affected in the first instance will require further adjustments that will gradually extend through the whole of society. Every change thus in a sense creates a 'problem' for society, even though no single individual perceives it as such; it is gradually 'solved' by the establishment of a new overall adjustment.

Friedrich Hayek#139

SocietyEconomicsChangeCoordination

About this quote

What does it mean?
Societal changes trigger adjustments that spread throughout the community.
In plain terms
When conditions change, everyone adjusts, and society finds a new balance.
What can you take from it?
Expect society to self-correct after changes.

Where it applies

  • market shifts
  • social policy
  • organizational change

Putting it to work

  • monitor systemic feedback
  • allow organic adjustment
  • avoid rigid planning

Questions to consider

  • Who decides when a problem is solved?
  • Is spontaneous adjustment always efficient?

Another view

Some changes require active intervention to solve.

More from Friedrich Hayek

  1. Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the stat…

    Permalink to quote #138
  2. From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and that the on…

    Permalink to quote #140
  3. Even more significant of the inherent weakness of the collectivist theories is the extraordinary paradox that from the assertion that society is in some sense …

    Permalink to quote #137

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