Serfdom and Freedom, part 4
Jun. 9th, 2024 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellOkay, it was actually 4 chapters left plus assorted back matter.
Chapter 13: Hayek calls out some specific contemporary authors he disagrees with.
Chapter 14: An appeal to the English people (The Road to Serfdom/cite> was originally published in the UK, aimed specifically at an English audience) to recall what wonderful people they are and reclaim the more liberal values they held in a previous era.
Chapter 15: If central planning for an entire nation is bad, central planning for the entire world would be worst.
Hayek is interested in having some kind of international political organization, though, and lays out his thoughts on a successor to the League of Nations. Unfortunately, they're too vague to tell if the UN fits the bill or not.
His main concern is for small countries like Switzerland and Holland that could be crushed by large, powerful countries, either militarily or economically. And of course, Switzerland and Holland are still with us, though I suspect that is less to do with the UN than it is with war generally going out of fashion in Central Europe.
Chapter 16: The conclusion! Nineteenth-century liberalism was awesome and the world should try that again.
But wait, there's more! The last part of this edition by Hayek himself is a bibliography of works by like-minded English-language writers.
An appendix of "related documents" follows. First up are the two readers' reports from when the University of Chicago was first considering printing a US edition. Then a gushing foreword to the 1944 US edition, a letter recounting the saga leading up to its publication, and, just for fun, one last introduction.
The final introduction is one written for the 1994 edition by Milton Friedman, and serves as a fitting epilogue by reminding the modern reader what neoliberalism turned into. Friedman notes how much of the world has chosen capitalism over communism, but laments that
I think I can guess what Friedman's least favorite chapter was.
So, to recap: Hayek's argument is that central planning necessarily leads to the state granting monopolies, the reduction of individual freedom, governmental gridlock, and a yearning among the populace for a strongman who will just make things happen, opening the way for a dictator. He and his intellectual allies became absolutely focused on stopping anything that looked like collectivist economic planning in the belief that that would preserve freedom.
And yet, here we are, after decades of their diligent work toward keeping the US government from doing anything at all, and we have monopolies, governmental gridlock, and a wannabe dictator anyway. Which means one of two things: either the knob of government action has to be carefully tuned (remember, Hayek wanted vigorous government involvement in keeping the free market free), or that high school history class was right, and the rise of totalitarianism has nothing to do with economic ideology.
Either way, it must be adding insult to injury that the very political party that the neoliberals cultivated for so long has dropped them for the new charismatic demagogue. I expect that Joseph Stiglitz will have some interesting things to say in The Road to Freedom, but I think the last laugh here belongs to Donald Trump.
Chapter 13: Hayek calls out some specific contemporary authors he disagrees with.
Chapter 14: An appeal to the English people (The Road to Serfdom/cite> was originally published in the UK, aimed specifically at an English audience) to recall what wonderful people they are and reclaim the more liberal values they held in a previous era.
Chapter 15: If central planning for an entire nation is bad, central planning for the entire world would be worst.
Hayek is interested in having some kind of international political organization, though, and lays out his thoughts on a successor to the League of Nations. Unfortunately, they're too vague to tell if the UN fits the bill or not.
His main concern is for small countries like Switzerland and Holland that could be crushed by large, powerful countries, either militarily or economically. And of course, Switzerland and Holland are still with us, though I suspect that is less to do with the UN than it is with war generally going out of fashion in Central Europe.
Chapter 16: The conclusion! Nineteenth-century liberalism was awesome and the world should try that again.
But wait, there's more! The last part of this edition by Hayek himself is a bibliography of works by like-minded English-language writers.
There are also important German and Italian works of a similar character which, in consideration for their authors, it would be unwise at present to mention by name.
An appendix of "related documents" follows. First up are the two readers' reports from when the University of Chicago was first considering printing a US edition. Then a gushing foreword to the 1944 US edition, a letter recounting the saga leading up to its publication, and, just for fun, one last introduction.
The final introduction is one written for the 1994 edition by Milton Friedman, and serves as a fitting epilogue by reminding the modern reader what neoliberalism turned into. Friedman notes how much of the world has chosen capitalism over communism, but laments that
[T]he bulk of the intellectual community almost automatically favors any expansion of government power as long as it is advertised as a way to protect individuals from big bad corporations, relieve poverty, protect the environment, or promote "equality". The present discussion of a national program of health care provides a striking example.
I think I can guess what Friedman's least favorite chapter was.
So, to recap: Hayek's argument is that central planning necessarily leads to the state granting monopolies, the reduction of individual freedom, governmental gridlock, and a yearning among the populace for a strongman who will just make things happen, opening the way for a dictator. He and his intellectual allies became absolutely focused on stopping anything that looked like collectivist economic planning in the belief that that would preserve freedom.
And yet, here we are, after decades of their diligent work toward keeping the US government from doing anything at all, and we have monopolies, governmental gridlock, and a wannabe dictator anyway. Which means one of two things: either the knob of government action has to be carefully tuned (remember, Hayek wanted vigorous government involvement in keeping the free market free), or that high school history class was right, and the rise of totalitarianism has nothing to do with economic ideology.
Either way, it must be adding insult to injury that the very political party that the neoliberals cultivated for so long has dropped them for the new charismatic demagogue. I expect that Joseph Stiglitz will have some interesting things to say in The Road to Freedom, but I think the last laugh here belongs to Donald Trump.
