Socialism - The Road to Serfdom

Frederick Hayek wrote a book between 1940 and 1943 which still has a profound relevance to the problems we face in today's world.  That book was "The Road to Serfdom".

Hayek was a respected economist whose ideas fall under what is now called the "Austrian School", an economic philosophy which celebrates libertarian, individualistic and free market ideals.  The introduction of the book tells how Hayek was criticised by his peers for writing a book (he actually considered it a "pamphlet") on politics.  This was apparently considered beneath an economist of his standing!

Hayek's reason for writing the book was his concern over how England and the USA, who were embroiled in conflict with Nazi Germany and her allies, seemed to be drifting into socialistic economic ideas and policies.  His concern stemmed from the central thesis of the book; that the practice of economic socilalism, which he argued had been prevalent in Germany many years before Hitler came to power, always led to the kind of totalitarian dictatorship exemplified by the Nazis.  His worry was that England and the USA were sleep-walking down the same road that their enemy, Germany, had travelled and would eventually become that which they were fighting against.

In the book, Hayek lays out the ideas, which he admits are in the main well-intentioned, of economic socialism, with its laudable desire to create a fairer world.  He then shows evidence of how these ideas had (in the time the book was written) become widespread in US and English public policy and political thinking.  Lastly, he illustrates how government intervention and planning in economic markets, which is the cornerstone of economic socialism, will always fail to satisfy the myriad want and needs of individuals within the market.  This fact will mean that whilst some may benefit from the policies of economic planners, many will suffer.  The many who suffer will therefore only be brought to heel by increasingly authoritarian and dictatorial control by the state, ensuring that the desired status quo is maintained.  The more complicated the society, the more planning is needed and thus individuals are forced to give up their individual rights to facilitate that planning.  This was pointed out, and indeed celebrated, by Benito Mussolini.            

Hayek, in my opinion, foresaw perfectly the growth of state control and intervention which we suffer from today.  It makes me just a little angry to see that some of the current "Occupy" protesters, who do have justifiable grounds to be unhappy with the way the world is currently run, state that the enemy is "Capitalism".  This, I believe, is profoundly wrong.

I believe that you would be hard pushed to find a country today that operates a capitalistic system.  Most countries, certainly the US and all of Europe, operates a system of corporate socialism.  This, you may be surprised to know, was foreseen by Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom" when he stated that a planned economy would be facilitated by either the state taking ownership of all means of production (Communism) or private monopolies doing the same, aided by legislation and public policy (the corporate socialism, dare we say "fascism", we have today).  Fascism (or National Socialism) and Communism, which have always supposed to be opposites, can therefore be seen to be different means to the same end.

Hayek suggested that, to avoid the descent into tyranny and serfdom, the US and England should turn back to economic liberalism.  He advocated returning to a free market system with state intervention strictly limited to those areas where it was unavoidable.  Looking at today's world, his words were clearly not heeded.

The sad fact is that the majority either do not understand or are in denial about where the root of the problem lies in today's society.  Socialism is the root of the evil; the answer is to return to the primacy of the individual and the freedom of that individual to engage in commerce without intervention from the state.