F. A. Hayek
The Road to Serfdom
ISBN: 0-226-32059-6
We live in interesting times right now. The economy has been untethered from reality for much of the 2020s due to a number of factors. In an effort to avoid immediate economic disaster, money printing was the name of the game during the pandemic. This, along with supply shocks, led to an extended period of inflation and price hikes which we have yet to fully exit. We’re just now feeling the effects of these years of more centralized economic planning, and there are a number of hurdles that still must be cleared before things settle down.
The fallout from the last few years has free-market advocates and libertarians screaming from the rooftops about the follies of central planning, even if it’s a layer on top of our current system. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom warns of the pathway that can lead from economic planning to totalitarianism. While the book was written for an English audience during the European struggle with both Hitler and Stalin, one can see a number of parallels between then and now, especially in the chapters Security and Freedom and The End of Truth.
Much of the book focused on individualism versus collectivism – the big struggle of the mid-20th century both in Europe and beyond. Hayek’s comparison between the free-market advocates and totalitarianism on both the left and the right was an amazing description of what is now referred to as “horseshoe theory” – those on the extreme left and extreme right have much more in common than they each have with more moderate thinkers of the left and right, respectively. You can see that today in some online forums, where the most hardened socialists and those on the extreme right have significant overlap with each other.
Hayek discusses the slippery slope of centralized economic planning, where control of one aspect of everyday life – the economy – easily can begin to seep into social planning – acceptable behaviors and norms – with totalitarianism as the final destination. For those paying attention to culture over the last decade or so, you could see fragments of this through “cancel culture” and things labeled as “woke” by both sides. Today, much of this discussion is filed under the “culture war,” where, again, both extremes are battling for totalitarianism-supremacy, while the 80 percent in the middle looks on.
Toward the end of the book, there was a great deal of foreshadowing of groups involved in world government. When the book was first released, the United Nations and World Health Organization did not yet exist. The League of Nations had come and gone before World War II, so people at the time were familiar with some of the basic tenets of world government. Reading this now, especially post-pandemic, it was surprising how close to the mark Hayek was in his worry about globalism.
While the book is not terribly long, the language can be a bit dated at times, as to be expected in a book originally written in the 1940s, which makes for a denser read than other books its size. I spent a couple of weekends pouring through it, as I wanted to re-read a couple of chapters along the way. Don’t expect to knock this out in an evening or two if you want to have a good experience with the text.
Overall, 8/10, would recommend to anyone looking to understand the basics of libertarian thought, both economically and politically. While I rarely review political books in this series, I included this book due to its connection with economic policy – the worlds of policy and economics frequently intersect. For its age, the text has held up quite well and was an enjoyable read. While it may no longer be a warning for what is to come, readers will appreciate the connections between the world eighty years ago and our current situation.