The Road to Serfdom

By F.A.Hayek

with Introduction, and edited by,

Bruce Caldwell

To begin with, there is a very long introduction by managing editor, Bruce Caldwell. Caldwell brings us a lot of information which is extremely necessary to gain the proper context for the book, and he does an excellent job in bringing the reader up to date with Hayek's times, and providing a greater depth of understanding to much of what follows. I think it fair to say that if you fail to read the introduction, you will not grasp the importance of what follows as readily as you would if you had.

The Road to Serfdom is a book about the economy. However, it is not a book about the economy the way that we think economic books should be. Instead, it's a book about how governments spend money. It's a book about the economy of government - how governments choose to spend money, and how that translates into an ideological position of the people.

Since time immemorial, governments have been taking money from the people that they govern, and spending it in ways that they believe will best benefit and solidify their political power. With the exception of the U.S. Government in the first 200 years, there has never been a government which had limitations of their power built into a Constitution. I say "in the first 200 years" because it has become clear that this is no longer the case.

When we look at families, and how they spend money, we can get a picture of their ideological outlook on life. The toys they buy, the vacations they engage, the books they read, the vocations they pursue: all of these point to a philosophy of life, and how they view the world as they believe it should be.

Governments are basically the same, except that instead of the parents, we look at the leaders and elites of government: the toys that they buy, the books that they read, the vacations that they engage, and the votes that they procure for the people. How governments spend money indicate a generalized philosophy of the people, whether they are willing participants in that philosophy or not.

Hayek's book is about this economy of government, as an examination of their values by examining how and where they spend their money. Socialist governments spend their money much differently than capitalist societies. And in correlation to that, socialist governments harbor societies which are significantly less free than those run on capitalist notions.

Hayek's perspective was from events prior to, and leading up to the 2nd World War, as he had seen how socialistic agendas had ruined his homeland of Austria. Yet even with all the attendant evils of the 2nd World War looming large above the Western world, Hayek still saw that there were many in positions of power and elitism, who were embracing the very ideologies which were responsible for bringing such dictatorial governments to power.

When F.A. Hayek first published this book in England in March of 1944, America was fully embroiled in the 2nd World War. The Soviets had advanced into Poland, and the Allies landed in Anzio; the Soviets captured Odessa, and Rome was captured by the Allies; the Allies invaded Normandy, and the US Army captured Cherbourg; the Allies liberated Florence, Paris, Marseilles, and Toulon, and the Germans abandoned Bulgaria, and the Soviets captured Bucharest.

It would seem that the powers of good had overcome the powers of evil; that the socialist takeover attempt had been thwarted by the capitalist powers of the world. Communism was on the run, and ultimately would be defeated by the end of 1945. But even with the war looking better from our perspective, and with socialistic regimes being crushed and repudiated on the battlefield, there seemed to be an embracing of these same fiscal and ideological policies (which had clearly brought about this war) by the Western powers.

Hayek sought to warn and counsel the people against such notions, and to show them how embracing socialistic policies would require that our governments must pursue more direct and powerful means of carrying out their socialistic mandates. All governmental social policies require power to redistribute wealth - this is a fact beyond dispute. The degree to which a people allow such power in the hands of governmental officials is the degree to how much freedom they will relinquish for such "benefits" as will result from such an arrangement.

Hayek quotes Max Eastman, who was initially a supporter of socialism but later turned crusader against socialism and a supporter of individual rights, as saying: "socialism is certain to prove, in the beginning at least, the road NOT to freedom, but to dictatorship and counter-dictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind. Socialism achieved and maintained by democratic means seems definitely to belong to the world of utopias." (pg.79)

This book is Hayek's attempt to show how it is that well-intentioned, socialistic-minded individuals did not understand that by empowering their governments to pursue social projects that they were surrendering their freedoms in ever increasing steps. Most of the people that supported Hitler's rise to power did so in the belief that he epitomized a change that all people would come to embrace willingly. Just like today's economy, Hitler promised to eradicate unemployment through social programs and public spending on road projects, etc.

Today's renewed interest of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom will prove to be a powerful tool in enlightening the people of the dangers of pursuing socialistic policies which only build the power structure of power-hungry politicians, and create an upside-down society. Indeed, Hayek's belief was that most socialists were misguided, but sincere in their pursuit of redistribution of wealth for the sake of those less fortunate, but that they were simply unable to grasp the reality of where such a road would lead to - hence the title of his book.

The prescience of his claims ring oh-so-true, and we see that he puts ignorance squarely to blame for those on the left embracing this redistribution of wealth. He states in no uncertain terms that those who march forward with this agenda do so without a clue as to the eventually dangerous repercussions that will ensue. He claimed that you could yell at them till you were blue in the face, and that they still "will not believe until the connection has been laid bare in all its aspects" - In other words, until it was far too late to turn back. (pg.82)

The chapters are fitted into a progressive manner which outlines the road signs and the intersections of the Road to Serfdom, with each chapter building upon the previous, and helping us to see the danger of the route which leads us to totalitarianism.

I heartily recommend this book to all who purport to love freedom, and invoke a challenge to everyone to openly acknowledge the inherent differences between socialistic and capitalistic governments.