Economist Friedrich Hayek said that, "If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists." This idea captures a truth worth serious consideration.Too many people have lost sight of basic economic principles and, as a result, are increasingly attracted to the easy answers offered by socialism.
They want government to provide more, regulate more, control more and redistribute more, without fully understanding the dire consequences of exactly where those policies lead.Hayek understood those consequences.The Austrian economist’s classic 1944 book, "The Road to Serfdom," remains one of the most important warnings ever written about the dangers of central planning and collectivism.
It is hardly an easy or entertaining read, but its central argument is clear.When government assumes control over economic decision-making, inevitably individual freedom suffers, and this is the path to serfdom.A government that attempts to centrally plan an economy must ultimately decide what is produced, how much is produced, who receives it and at what price.
Dissent becomes an obstacle.Individual choices become a threat to the plan.
Eventually, the state must force people to conform.That is the ‘serfdom’ he predicts.
This can and is slowly happening even with well-intentioned democracies, like ours in the United States.Each new intervention is justified as necessary to solve the problem of the moment.LEADING ECONOMIST WARNS OF RISE OF 'GEN Z AFFORDABILITY SOCIALISM'Any good economic system begins with individual freedom.
Within the rule of law, people are free to pursue their own interests for their own sake to improve their own circumstances.These conditions unleash the most powerful force in the world: incentives!Members of the Democratic Socialists of America gather outside a Trump-owned building on May Day, May 1, 2019, in New York City.
(Getty Images)When people can own property, keep the rewards of their labor and pursue their own goals, they have a reason ...