The Road to Serfdom

Do you believe that government is your enemy and that it tries to take away your freedom and money? In olden days, when feudalism was in style, people had to be protected from marauding bandits and other evils, so they agreed to let the local duke provide them with protection and in exchange, they would do his bidding and also give him some of their crops. Ultimately, they even gave him their land, but he was “kind” enough to let them still live on it. In effect, they had sacrificed their liberty, their freedom, for security.

Things haven’t changed. The bandits have been replaced by terrorists and unaffordable medical care. The government is willing to protect you from terrorists by providing airport security and SWAT teams and make sure you have adequate health care, but in exchange, you have to pay the government, via taxes, for these things, about which you have given up a lot of the decision-making function. You are sacrificing your liberty, your freedom, for security. Sound familiar?

Our government, then, can be seen by some as trying to bring back feudalism. Oddly enough, there was a book written in the forties by the eminent conservative Austrian economist, Frederich Hayek, entitled “The Road to Serfdom.” Some consider it a “libertarian manifesto.” He later won a Nobel prize for economics. “The Road to Serfdom” is still on my reading list but I suspect it points out that dependence on the government through collectivist means takes us back to what amounts to feudalism. Hayek is remembered for stating that “a conservative is a socialist who has been mugged by reality.”

In these days when many conservative spokespeople pour out oceans of meaningless drivel, it should be remembered that there are legitimate espousers of conservatism, like Hayek and his disciples. Surprisingly, even George Soros who most conservatives dislike, has shown respect for Hayek’s work by inviting a leading disciple of Hayek to participate in his new economic think tank.

My preliminary take on this (which I really should hold off on until I read the aforementioned book) is that if a government remains democratically elected and truly has the welfare of its people as its goal, the danger of it leading the country down the “Road to Serfdom” is minimal. This was not the case when Hayek wrote his book; at that time Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and others were doing precisely that. I hope things are better today. More follows when I read the book.