The Road to Serfdom

http://www.freerepublic.com ^ | 1944 | F. A. Hayek

[cornelis]

Along with Ludwig von Mises, he was an early exponent of the Austrian school of economic thought.

Yes, but unlike von Mises, he reasoned without dismissing the moral question. Hayek's knowledge that human nature was not a machine tempered the scientific rationalism that is so often the refuge of those who are devoted to "what works."

[hedgetrimmer]

The road to serfdom is paved by "free trade".

[bubman]

Great book. BTW Hayek was not english but Austrian born. Either way what he wrote is prescient today.

My conclusion on observing the left in the west really comes down not to ideology but to class. The left under their guise to 'help the disenfranchised" will invevitably pave the way to totalitarianism. all movements of liberation have offered the masses the same: liberation from tyranny, a new social order where the new man will be freed from the tyranny of servitute, history, class, race, etc.

But the 'struggle' is never ending. the war of liberation is perpetual. the left is always preparing for war and as a result those who do not support the movement are branded as enemies of the revolution and so on. Then the cycle of tyranny continues.

What the left despises is a free citizenry that left to it's own devices, will not follow the perscribed marxist plan. Thus they find refuge in institutions such as the judiciary, media and the academia just to name a few, that is at arms length of the democratic process. Offering them leverage to push through an agenda that may not be accepted in an open ballot. Abortion, gay marriage, stem-cell research and so on.

I suggest you pick up Robert Bork Slouching's Towards Gomorrah, The Theory of Moral Sentiment by Adam Smith. Anything by Locke & Voltaire just to name a few. Hayek is part of the same tangent of voices as others that warn us again and again that tyranny lurkes around the corners of history.

[cornelis]

Voltaire and Hayek? Did you forget Comte?

[true_blue_texican]

bttt

[Cheapskate]

I've heard Walter E. Williams(the Professor of Liberty!) speak of it on Rush'es show!

[Bishop_Malachi]

hedgetrimmer wrote, "The road to serfdom is paved by "free trade".


Please elaborate...I'm not following you.

[rabscuttle385]

Maybe I should listen to Rush more often ;)

[Jacquerie]

Austrian.

Oops, my mistake. He was Austrian, not English.

[Jacquerie]

In the following chapter, Hayek writes:

"What in effect unites the socialists of the Left and the Right is common hostility to competition and their common desire to replace it by a directed economy."

[Jacquerie]

You write very well and I agree with all of your points. Thanks for the reading recommendations!

BTW, being Canadian, how do you suggest we derail the national health care train that is coming around the bend?

[Wildbill22]

Very good book. It should be required reading. Thomas Sowell has written some similar concepts in his work.

[hedgetrimmer]

What in effect unites the socialists of the Left and the Right is common hostility to competition and their common desire to replace it by a directed economy."

This is describes to a 'T' the falsely named "free trade" system established by the global socialists in conjunction with transnational corporations. The whole purpose of the WTO and the plethora of 'working groups' and 'ministerials' it has created is to CONTROL trade and a global level and remove ANY local control over trade, and private ownership by individuals. This is evidenced by the language and effect of the numerous "free trade agreements" or FTAs that are burning like brushfires around the world. These FTAs usurp control, diminish sovereignty and harm individual rights.

In short, they are as antithetical to a free society as anything can be. For us, especially here in America,there is nothing "free" about them, from the fact that they are forced Americans without our consent to the fact that the American taxpayer is funding it. Without the American taxpayer , this "free trade" system could not have proliferated as it has. Sadly many Americans are not even aware of the massive subsidies globalization has required, financially and culturally.

[sauropod]

It is a great book.

[spunkets]

Bump for an excellent book.

[fella]

Sounds very much like Herbert Spencer's essays from a hundred years earlier and collected by Truxtun Beale in "The Man Versus The State".

[wildcatf4f3]

bttt

[longtermmemmory]

bump to encourage all to read this book

(we need a "booklist" bump list)

[Shimmer128]

Re: The Road to Serfdom.
When did the terms liberal and conservative get switched around?

I've got this, i just have to read it now.

[1rudeboy]

Unintentionally ironic.