Monday, July 1, 2024

Free Download: Friedrich A. Hayek, "The Road to Serfdom"

"Friedrich A. Hayek, in "The Road to Serfdom" writes: “In order to achieve their ends the planners must create power – power over men wielded by other men – of a magnitude never before known. Their success will depend on the extent to which they achieve such power. Democracy is an obstacle to this suppression of freedom which centralized direction of economic activity requires. Hence, arises the clash between planning and democracy.

Many socialists have the tragic illusion that by depriving private individuals of the power they possess in an individualist system, and transferring this power to society, they thereby extinguish power. What they overlook is that by concentrating power so that it can be used in the service of a single plan it is not merely transformed, but infinitely heightened…

In the hands of private individuals, what is called economic power can be an instrument of coercion, but it is never control over the life of the person. But when economic power is centralized as an instrument of political power it creates a degree of dependence scarcely distinguishable for slavery.”
Freely download "The Road to Serfdom", by Friedrich A. Hayek, here:

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