Wednesday, May 10, 2017

F. A. Hayek condensed

The leading economist of the 20th century was F.A. Hayek, an Austrian by birth and British by choice. Back in the days when Reader's Digest had 7 million subscribers just in the U.S., his "The Road to Serfdom" was published in the magazine in 1945. It was also reissued by Book of the Month club with 600,000 copies, and you can still buy the condensed version today (or download). People 70 years ago knew a lot more about economics than our fragile, fearful snowflakes, their parents and grandparents today. And from the Reader's Digest. Who knew?
"Our generation has forgotten that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves. When all the means of production are vested in a single hand, whether it be nominally that of ‘society’ as a whole or that of a dictator, whoever exercises this control has complete power over us."

No comments: