Language and the Socialist-Calculation Problem (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Language and the Socialist-Calculation Problem

Mises Daily: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 by Danny Hieber

We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the
English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our
people out as Americans, of    American nationality, and not as
dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.

    — Theodore Roosevelt[1]

There are 6,909 languages alive in the world today. Seventy-four are
indigenous to California alone — languages like Hupa, Kawaiisu, and
Shoshone — while Papua New Guinea has over 800, with a median of just
1,200 speakers per language.

As astonishing as these figures seem, they obscure a stark reality:
potentially half of these languages are set to vanish in the next
century. Don't believe me? Consider that in North America, out of 296
known languages at the time of European contact, only 33 are being
actively passed down to the next generation. The rest will become
extinct upon the death of their last speakers (if they haven't
already), probably sometime this century.[2]

Access full article below:
http://mises.org/daily/4687