The Road To Serfdom

Hayek's The Road to Serfdom is a relatively straightforward read. It basically discusses how no one group can ever know enough to successfully run an economy. To some extent Hayek is correct in arguing that any attempt to plan an economic future is setting itself up for failure as can be seen with the German Wiemar Republic's failure. Hayek goes on to say that this failure inevitably results in the rule of a dictator as a last ditch attempt to avoid chaos. Here one can see a clear correlation between the Nazi Regime.


The new command economy represents the submission of the individual to the dictating planners; where power was once dispersed amongst industrialists it is now stuck with a select few. This reduces the common man to that of a "serf" as he is unable to his produce for the highest price.



The book is as relevant now as it ever was. It is a piece of of literature which defends private property and supports the idea that promotes the individual to decide. It puts forward the argument to keep centralised power out of economic matters, and to Hayek, the central control of the economy equals slavery and an abolition of democracy. On the matter, Leon Trotsky said, "In a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle - who does not work shall not eat - has been replaced by a new one - who does not obey shall not eat". This planning then doesn't cease and man becomes a mere cog in a machine, with every aspect of life being planned.



Although a lot of Hayek's ideas appear rather drastic - people even joked that Hayek would have you believe that if there was an over-production of baby carriages, planners would insist upon people having more children as opposed to halting production - his general arguments, which are based upon 20th Century events do bring home a huge amount of truth and poignancy.