The Road to Serfdom

In 1944, F.A. Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom, his metaphor for the logical conclusion of collectivism.  Simply put, “collectivism” is the mindless obedience of the people to the will of the state.  It is the process of governing envisioned and advocated by Rousseau and Hobbes, as well as Plato in his Republic.  Collectivism assumes that government knows best, and, therefore, individual wills are too conflicted to accomplish a unified goal.  This theory assumes that the people will choose a wise leader and submit their individual wills to him.

As we know from history, such a utopian assumption disregards man’s egocentric desire for power.  Thus history shows Marx’s so-called “classless society” results in the ruthless dictatorship of Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin.  Likewise the nationalistic superiority advocated by Hitler leads to Holocaust, an ignominious defeat of the German people, and the cowardly suicide of the dictator.

The false promise of utopianism always ends badly for the people who may initially support it.  The beneficiaries of utopianism—ruthless, corrupt dictators or putative dictators–therefore market their unattainable promises with lies they know people will eagerly accept—e.g., “free” college education, “free” medical care, the forced redistribution wealth  because rich people don’t deserve the money they earn, and more free time, since working eight or more hours a day is akin to slavery.  Not only are these snake-oil promises sold with lies, their details are kept secret from the public for obvious reasons that include increased taxes on everyone who works and endangeried job potential for everyone in the private sector. 

Playing the Class Division Card
The latest higher-taxes-are-good-for-you slogan by Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist from Vermont, is a perfect example of fool’s gold: “It’s not a tax on the people.  It’s a tax for the people.”  This Orwellian construct spins the slogan’s true meaning: “I will raise taxes on everyone and then redistribute as I see fit.”  In fact, there is no essential difference between what Sanders’ advocates and what President Obama has already put in place under the guise of transformation and “hope and change,” which his campaign team knew everyone would interpret subjectively.  There’s no question Hillary Clinton will continue the same economic policy if elected president in 2016.  

Hillary Clinton’s policies seem to begin and end with the word “inequality,”  by which she means pretty much what Sanders means; that is, the rich are too rich, and everyone else doesn’t have enough.  The curious economic paradox of electing Democrats, however, is that the rich keep getting richer, and the middle class keeps getting squeezed.  During the almost seven years under Obama, average middle class income has declined by thousands of dollars, poverty has increased, and more people—63.2%–are not working since 1978.

Furthermore, the Democrats—or Progressives, as they now like to call themselves–never extol the benefits of capitalism because they know capitalism is the enemy of their economic policies.   And under their policies, only the rich get richer; everyone else is forced to survive financially courtesy of government largesse in the form of subsidies.  In other words, Democrats never champion capitalism because it offers everyone a chance to better themselves, which explicitly defeats the Democrats’ credo: dependency on government.

The great irony of Democratic support, nevertheless, is how many super-rich people are eager to donate heavily to Democratic candidates and causes.  The primary reason for their generosity is that the super rich know from experience that Democrats will always permit them to get richer, understanding that no matter how they rail against plutocrats in their campaign rhetoric, they need them to fund their increasingly exorbitant campaign expenses.

How Dictators Come to Power
Of course not every dictator is elected.  Some attain leadership through military insurrection.  North Korea and Cuba are two examples.  But whether elected or not, the results are always the same–the victimization of the people by leaders who claim to be the people’s benefactors.  No wonder so many authoritarian countries call themselves: The People’s Republic.

We have only to look around the world to note the victims of collectivism in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia, where strongmen thugs rule and people either submit to their rule or are imprisoned and/or killed.  Even China, which some American lefties admire, is nothing but a hybrid political tyranny that permits some degree of capitalism to survive economically, but is, nevertheless, a dictatorship controlled by the same terroristic principles as the aforementioned countries.

How America Turned Away from the Constitution
America’s flirtation with and partial implementation of collectivism goes back to the election of FDR, who believed that the Depression permitted him to assume extraordinary powers not delegated by the Constitution.  In other words, he believed the exigencies of severe economic downturn gave him license to do what he considered best, regardless of legal statute, and thanks to the National Industrial Recovery Act, FDR had over three billion dollars to establish what became known as the “alphabet-soup” agencies, each with its own budget and goals, all without specific congressional authority.

This major leap in executive branch power diminished the co-equal legislative and judicial branches to a subordinate role in government management because suddenly the president could grow government bureaucracy without interference.  In other words–and this is perhaps the most lingering danger from FDR’s administration–the president could suddenly make laws called regulations that by-pass Congress. 

To cite just one overweening example of a federal agency’s grasp over individual freedom, HUD is attempting–using the Fair Housing law of 1968 as precedent–to force lower-income housing upon upper-income communities.  The forerunner of this legal battle is now being fought by Westchester County, New York, against HUD.

The Obama administration, like so many previous Democratic administrations, remains eager to control the lives of people, knowing full well that government largesse weakens individual initiative and grows government power, propelling us all down the bumpy road to serfdom.   

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