The Road to Serfdom by Fredreich A. von Hayek posits the belief that central planning is by its very nature, inefficient. The author argues that only the free market allows for the free exchange of information that provides efficiency. However, it is not these beliefs that make Hayek’s book controversial and relevant nearly six decades after its initial publication in 1944. Hayek’s main thesis is that central planning (socialism) inevitably leads to totalitarianism: “Socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number...While democracy seeks equality in liberty; socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude” (25).
Hayek’s road to serfdom is an inevitable slippery slope that eventually replaces individual liberty with obedience to the state. In order to achieve the plan of central planners, obedience is required. As government creates more laws and gains more control, people become less productive and the economy weakens. When the economy cannot meet the need of the people, instability ensues during which the people demand more government intervention. As the government grows in power, the stage for totalitarianism is set akin to Germany, Italy, and Russia. As the government gains power and more control over the economy, freedoms are replaced by totalitarianism. Liberty is increasingly viewed by the people as worthy of sacrifice for safety and security. However, as Hayek warns us via the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” (133).
Hayek provides case examples of Germany and other nations to demonstrate that every type of centralized authority has the tendency to threaten democracy and freedom. Hayek makes a strong case for individualism in this book, one that has ominous overtones in our contemporary era of rising government power, centralized planning, and mounting public and private debt: ...