Part 1 – An Introduction to Hayek
“The most important change which extensive government control produces is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people…even a strong tradition of political liberty is no safeguard…”
F. A. Hayek
Covid and the Globalist
We’ve all just woken from a horrible hangover caused by global elites – and the present economic crises is a direct result of their mishandling. Leaders around the world perverted science and used the medical establishment to seize control over global economic systems and trample people’s rights. Their efforts succeeded in eradicating not the Covid virus, but individual freedom.
As a result:
- Mental health problems like suicide and anxiety are up,
- Inflation is up and relative income is down,
- GDP and other metrics of economic performance are down,
- Birth rates are down,
- Education is down,
- Crime and violence are up,
- War is up as Russia pounds Ukraine, and
- The poor globally are poorer because of nonsensical government interventions.
To be clear, global elites did not create the Covid virus, but they did use it to seize control and power. They used it to justify themselves, push unrelated agendas, and remove leaders from power.
These points are relevant, not just to regurgitate half the talking heads, but because we’ve been here before.
In the 1930s an economist from Vienna joined the London School of Economics and began sounding alarms. People didn’t heed his warnings. The Second World War came all the same to combat the government schemes he warned against.
The man’s name was F. A. Hayek and his most famous work, The Road to Serfdom was published in 1944. His work is as relevant now as it was then because there is once again a global crusade against personal liberty and free enterprise.
What Does the World Today Have in Common With the 1930s and 1940s?
Now, as then, the world faces a global menace. Back then fascist, socialist, and communist sought to reform much of the world – those were the enemies of free men and women. These political and economic philosophies stem from centralized government in which elites proport to know how best to govern the masses. A controlled economy and a government by design naturally grow into an authoritarian regime – “might makes right” is the only way to continue these government schemes.
Today, the government planning elites hide behind different names. They go by progressives, greens, globalist, collectivist, and use science as their shield. They are uninterested in debate or dissenting opinions. As in the past, people around the Western world (the United States, Europe, and Australia) consent to the rise of this leftist ideology. Why? How are we the people so easily fooled? F. A. Hayek has answers for concerned citizens.
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek has been called “an unimpeachable classic” for its warnings against state control and collectivism. Central to Hayek’s thinking is that when government authority is high, individual freedom suffers and so do people. When people rely on government or others, they fail to learn to do things for themselves and so competency drains. The powerful elites have no option but to maintain control over the masses. It’s an ancient and sad tale.
Why the Road to Serfdom Matters Today
Hayek explores individual liberty and related concepts with surgical precision. He uses the historical record to analyze how economic and social changes are impacted by the struggle between those who seek greater state control and those who seek individual freedom. What Hayek explains is how the natural and predictable consequences of government control inevitably leads to totalitarian authority. Among his many insights are four ideas worthy of mention: The root causes of totalitarianism, emergency powers, the example of Germany, and the trick of collectivism.
1) The Root Causes of Totalitarianism
Hayek’s relevance can’t be overstated, especially his explanation for the root causes of totalitarianism.
His central concern identifies “planners” and “reformers” who fundamentally changed societies in the name of the greater good. Socialism, communism, and fascism resulted from government planning schemes and reforms. As noted already, the terms change, as the language changes, but the concepts remain. The result from all these centralizing effects on governments and economies is always totalitarianism.
The pattern is the same now, as it was in the 1920s and 1930s, and the 19th century. The elites claim reforms are necessary to care for a segment of the population. Then they say, we’ll take from you for the greater good. The strong arm of government is necessary to force this scheme on the people. It’s a slippery slope to fascist, socialist, or communist systems of control. These programs seek progress towards a world where the collective good is paramount. Any dissent must be crushed because the scheme cannot work without the participation of everyone.
What begins as an exercise in helping the downtrodden and creating a guarantee of safety (food, health care, etc) inevitably progresses to a collective mindset. The government must maintain order through a systematic oppression of individual rights and strict government controls (socialism, communism, fascism). These systems are against human nature and so people will not long tolerate these schemes without the government assuming a totalitarian posture.
2) Emergency Powers
A main concern for Hayek is the use of war powers. These “emergency” powers are, of course, necessary to ward off an even scarier enemy as was done during the Second World War. But, the industrial military complex created in the United States and Western Europe, never went away. Powers created by our the government to defeat the enemy were never dialed back. To his thinking, the Western alliance mirrored the totalitarian enemies we sought to defeat
In the aftermath of Covid, we awake to find ourselves $31 trillion in debt, the CDC has become all knowing and powerful, the white lab coat wearers have become mini dictators, and almost all Americans are suspicious of our health system. Government bureaucrats have swelled their ranks beyond the consent of the governed, who have become fearful of questioning “the science” because of retaliation or shaming. A massive health industrial complex was created and now will not go away.
The emergency powers Hayek feared during World War II created massive state control. The same is true now.
3) Germany
Over the course of 70 years, Germany slid from one of the freest and most educated places in the world to fascism. Traditional Western values such as freedom, free trade, capitalism, and individualism was high in Germany. In a generation, these values were flipped on their head. Germans turned to thinking these ideas are selfish and welcomed government planning.
In 1944 when the book was written, Hayek wrote the following:
“The crucial point of which our people are still so little aware is, however, not merely the magnitude of the changes which have taken place during that last generation but the fact that they mean a complete change in the direction of the evolution of our ideas and social order. For at least twenty-five years before the specter of totalitarianism became a real threat, we had progressively been moving away from the basic ideas on which Western civilization has been built. That this movement on which we have entered with such high hopes and ambitions should have brought us face to face with the totalitarian horror has come as a profound shock to this generation, which still refuses to connect the two facts. Yet this development merely confirms the warnings of the fathers of the liberal philosophy which we still profess. We have progressively abandoned that freedom in economic affairs without which personal and political freedom has never existed in the past. Although we had been warned by some of the greatest political thinkers of the nineteenth century, by Tocqueville and Lord Acton, that socialism means slavery, we have steadily moved in the direction of socialism. And now that we have seen a new form of slavery arise before our eyes, we have so completely forgotten the warning that it scarcely occurs to us that the two things may be connected.”
If those lines don’t wake you up like a cold shower, then you are already a slave of which he writes. Those lines are eerily reflective of the cultural decline around us. Western civilization is again under attack, and socialist type thinking is again on the rise. Let not the hard-won wisdom of Western thought die on our watch.
4) The Great Trick
The great tick is making people think collectivism and planned government gives people freedom. They do this by promising security – vote for this person and you’ll get these things or put out this flag and the mob will leave you alone.
In order to prevent these tricks, our next generation should again become comfortable with two ideas: 1) Laissez-faire economics, and 2) the foundational concept that people should be free to do whatever they want as long as they are not hurting others. Freedom may be lost without widespread understanding of these ideas.
Applying Hayek’s Ideas
What do we do with Hayek in today’s world?
In order to understand how Hayek applies today, let’s consider two contemporary issues: Covid and health care.
Covid
It’s already been established that governments worldwide overreached regarding everything Covid. Hayek would undoubtedly argue for rescinding all Covid related programs. The Covid panic has passed and so should government intervention. It’s time to reduce spending to pre-Covid levels, eliminate each and every government program created to combat the virus, and make healthcare responsive to states and the people again.
This would require bring the budget for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) back to pre-Covid days. It would require the FDA leaving Covid shots to the normal course of vaccinations. It would mean ending the war on Covid and all related actions.
Health Care
Single payer healthcare, sometimes called universal healthcare, has long been the aim of many well intended politicians comfortable with centralized government. Let’s stipulate that everyone desires affordable healthcare for every American citizen – it’s nonsense to suggest any politician doesn’t.
Opposition to single payer healthcare aligns with Hayek’s thinking for three reasons:
1) It would increase government control, which naturally reducing individual liberty.
2) Increased spending and taxes to pay for these programs is tantamount to stealing money from half the country to give to the other half.
3) Government bureaucrats are poor program administrators – private enterprise is a much more effective means of producing positive health outcomes because of competition, specialization, and other features of free market capitalism.
For Hayek, the natural consequence once single payer healthcare is established would be to punish those who oppose it, which is hardly democratic or liberal. One size fits all medicine is hardly healthy, yet dissenters would be forced into submission.
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In his final analysis, Hayek declares: “If in the first attempt to create a world of free men we have failed, we must try again. The guiding principle that a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy remains as true today as it was in the nineteenth century.”
