Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesnt just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.
F.A. Hayek an Austrian economist living in Britain wrote The Road to Serfdom in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Readers Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies.
Hayek meant that governments cant plan economies without planning peoples lives. After all an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The scientific-sounding language of President Obamas economic planning hides the fact that people must shelve their own plans in favor of governments single plan.
At the beginning of The Road to Serfdom Hayek acknowledges that mere material wealth is not all thats at stake when the government controls our lives: The most important change ... is a psychological change an alteration in the character of the people.
This shouldnt be controversial. If government relieves us of the responsibility of living by bailing us out character will atrophy. The welfare state however good its intentions of creating material equality cant help but make us dependent. That changes the psychology of society.
Ill explore this tomorrow night on my Fox Business show 8 p.m. Eastern (rebroadcast Friday at 10 p.m.).
According to the Tax Foundation 60 percent of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does it say about a society in which more than half the people live at the expense of the rest? Worse the dependent class is growing. The 60 percent will soon be 70 percent.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems to understand the threat: Hes worries that more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise. This is a road that Hayek perfectly described as the road to serfdom. (Tomorrow I will ask Ryan why if he understands this he voted for TARP and the auto bailouts.)
Kurt Vonnegut understood the threat of government-imposed equality. His short story Harrison Bergeron portrays a future in which no one is permitted to have any physical or intellectual advantage over anyone else. A government Handicapper General weighs down the strong and agile masks the faces of the beautiful and distracts the smart.
So far the Handicapper General is just fantasy. But Vice President Joe Biden did shout at the Democratic National Convention: Everyone is your equal and everyone is equal to you. If he meant that were all equal in rights and before the law fine. If he meant government shouldnt put barriers in the way of opportunity great. But statists like Biden usually have more in mind: They want government to make results more equal.
Two actual examples of the lunacy:
When colleges innovated by having students use Kindle e-book readers instead of expensive textbooks the Justice Department sued them complaining that the Kindle discriminates against blind students. The department also is suing the Massachusetts prison system because it makes prospective prison guards take a physical test. Since women dont do as well as men on that test Justice claims the test discriminates against women.
Arthur Brooks who heads the American Enterprise Institute says statism is becoming the central organizing power in our economy and that the battle between free enterprise and statism will shape our futures. He remains optimistic because a recent poll showed that 70 percent of Americans want free enterprise. Im less sanguine. In that same poll 54 percent of Americans said government should exert more control over the economy. Brooks discounts that claiming people forget their core values during crises.
But he asks the right question: Do we want a culture of takers or makers? Ryan and Brooks say most people want the American idea: freedom and self-responsibility. I fear they want a Mommy State to take care of them. What do you think?
The choice is crucial. If we continue down the Road to Serfdom our destination will be a poorer society high unemployment stagnation and complacency.
John Stossel blogs at http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/ is an award-winning news correspondent and author of Myths Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong.
Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesnt just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.
F.A. Hayek an Austrian economist living in Britain wrote The Road to Serfdom in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. The book was a hit. Readers Digest produced a condensed version that sold 5 million copies.
Hayek meant that governments cant plan economies without planning peoples lives. After all an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The scientific-sounding language of President Obamas economic planning hides the fact that people must shelve their own plans in favor of governments single plan.
At the beginning of The Road to Serfdom Hayek acknowledges that mere material wealth is not all thats at stake when the government controls our lives: The most important change ... is a psychological change an alteration in the character of the people.
This shouldnt be controversial. If government relieves us of the responsibility of living by bailing us out character will atrophy. The welfare state however good its intentions of creating material equality cant help but make us dependent. That changes the psychology of society.
Ill explore this tomorrow night on my Fox Business show 8 p.m. Eastern (rebroadcast Friday at 10 p.m.).
According to the Tax Foundation 60 percent of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does it say about a society in which more than half the people live at the expense of the rest? Worse the dependent class is growing. The 60 percent will soon be 70 percent.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems to understand the threat: Hes worries that more people have a stake in the welfare state than in free enterprise. This is a road that Hayek perfectly described as the road to serfdom. (Tomorrow I will ask Ryan why if he understands this he voted for TARP and the auto bailouts.)
Kurt Vonnegut understood the threat of government-imposed equality. His short story Harrison Bergeron portrays a future in which no one is permitted to have any physical or intellectual advantage over anyone else. A government Handicapper General weighs down the strong and agile masks the faces of the beautiful and distracts the smart.
So far the Handicapper General is just fantasy. But Vice President Joe Biden did shout at the Democratic National Convention: Everyone is your equal and everyone is equal to you. If he meant that were all equal in rights and before the law fine. If he meant government shouldnt put barriers in the way of opportunity great. But statists like Biden usually have more in mind: They want government to make results more equal.
Two actual examples of the lunacy:
When colleges innovated by having students use Kindle e-book readers instead of expensive textbooks the Justice Department sued them complaining that the Kindle discriminates against blind students. The department also is suing the Massachusetts prison system because it makes prospective prison guards take a physical test. Since women dont do as well as men on that test Justice claims the test discriminates against women.
Arthur Brooks who heads the American Enterprise Institute says statism is becoming the central organizing power in our economy and that the battle between free enterprise and statism will shape our futures. He remains optimistic because a recent poll showed that 70 percent of Americans want free enterprise. Im less sanguine. In that same poll 54 percent of Americans said government should exert more control over the economy. Brooks discounts that claiming people forget their core values during crises.
But he asks the right question: Do we want a culture of takers or makers? Ryan and Brooks say most people want the American idea: freedom and self-responsibility. I fear they want a Mommy State to take care of them. What do you think?
The choice is crucial. If we continue down the Road to Serfdom our destination will be a poorer society high unemployment stagnation and complacency.
John Stossel blogs at http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/ is an award-winning news correspondent and author of Myths Lies and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel--Why Everything You Know is Wrong.
