Will I love The Road to Serfdom?

Starting a book by a Nobel Laureate in economics might seem intimidating, but no one should shy away from Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. Like many titles on my long “to-read” list, I wish I had opened it decades earlier. Though published in 1944, its insights remain as vital today as during the turmoil of World War II. Whatever one’s political leanings, there are passages that make any reader nod in agreement, and pause in reflection.

One line I underlined captures Hayek’s warning: “… in the disciplines dealing directly with human affairs … the disinterested search for truth cannot… show more.

The classic exposition of the idea that central governmental economic planning will inevitably be wasteful and tyrannical. Hayek today is caricatured by both right and left, but he is not the minimal state absolutist that both sides often take him to be. Hayek thinks that the way to attack poverty is not redistribution – there isn’t yet enough wealth in existence to give everyone a decent life – but the opportunities created by free markets. Another impetus for my own work was reading this book and discovering that I agreed with him much more than I had expected to. 

This book was written during the height of World War II and published in 1944 by Friedrich von Hayek, one of the giants of 20th century economic and political thought. His book lays out in stark terms the key issues concerning the size and role of the state in a modern economy. As such, it was a major inspiration for my own book. I take some of his arguments seriously and show which ones are still relevant in the 21st century and which ones no longer are.

Hayek is an exponent of the Austrian School, a tradition that has deeply influenced many libertarians. The Road to Serfdom was a best-seller exposition of classic liberal and libertarian ideas. Written during WWII, at a time when socialism and central planning were fashionable, Hayek warns policymakers of the danger of tyranny stemming from government control and central planning. In a sense, he anticipates Friedman’s claims that central planning and democracy were incompatible.

Many criticize Hayek’s warnings as exaggerated: the latter part of the 20th century witnessed substantial growth in Western states’ budgets, transfers, and regulations, but no lapse into outright… show more.