The Road To Serfdom

The author stands for freedom of the individual, especially in business and trade, which flies in the face of the more popular collectivist leanings of his fellow academics. Hayek is fair-minded, thorough, and detailed in his arguments, and passionate about his belief in freedom; he bemoans the ongoing attraction to economic systems that would destroy peoples’ freedoms. In effect, as socialist intellectuals brush past him impatiently on the way to their imagined paradise, Hayek waves his hands, trying to warn them that the society they hope for is in fact a political chamber of horrors.

Hayek’s nemesis is the academic or other intellectual who touts collectivist ideals. This person may believe passionately in the evils of capitalism and the remedies of central planning, but he ignores the threat to freedom raised by such programs. Given power, the Intellectual would likely resort to arbitrary and dictatorial edicts that would dismantle the very liberties to which he gives lip service.

The Planner wants to control all aspects of a society through government directive, believing he can better manage the economy than can the people, as they go about their business. At first, only the economy will be directed, but, as conflicts arise, the planner will begin to issue rules that forbid behaviors that interfere with the plan.