The Road to Serfdom - a review

The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A tour de force of conservatism, which I’ve been meaning to read for many years, Hayek does NOT disappoint.

Writing in England near the end of World War II in 1944, Hayek raises the alarm: many Europeans are adopting the same socialism that Germany did in the buildup to Hitler. Collectivism, whether fascist or communist, is the road to serfdom. Western nations must resist it and insist on the first political principle of individual liberty. State bureaucrats should not plan our economy – the free market is the best instrument for this.

The ad Hitlerum argument is overplayed these days, but for Hayek it packed a powerful punch. The carnage he wreaked had become evident. And Hitler was the one who wanted to organize society and industry under the state, subsuming the family, church, and individual. Now the socialists in the west want to do the same! No. Let the market sort out the best allocation of resources.

At many points, Hayek is prescient in seeing the downsides of the United Nations and the European Union, neither yet formed when he wrote.

There was a strange section I think I disagreed with, where Hayek argues that no society has a comprehensive ethical system. Therefore we cannot have central planners dictate rules for everyone, since not everyone agrees to all the moral priorities. There is some truth to this, in realpolitik, especially surveying our divided society today. But he doesn’t address the Judeo-Christian heritage in Scripture, which certainly DOES provide Western nations of Christian heritage with a comprehensive ethical system. Should Hayek’s libertarianism be moderated by some sort of Christian theonomy? This debate rages today.

Be that as it may, Hayek is a master in exposing the good intentions of socialist planners as totalitarians at heart. Even today, especially today, subsidizing various industries in many areas of the economy (green energy comes to mind), these socialists continue today to chip away at freedom, seeking to plan and direct the free economy to their own ends. Even the right has gotten on board lately, with their tariffs and nationalism.

Hayek is a helpful political compass to bring us back to what government is FOR. Not directing a society to the state’s “ethical” ends, but enforcing established rule of law so individuals can plan effectively how to use their resources to the fullest.

Hayek was an academic, and is not very easy to read. His average sentence length is probably double that of popular writing today. But it is well worth the effort. A rare 5 stars!

View all my reviews