Reddit Reddit reviews The Road to Serfdom: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

We found 17 Reddit comments about The Road to Serfdom: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Road to Serfdom: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
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17 Reddit comments about The Road to Serfdom: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition:

u/[deleted] · 31 pointsr/AskReddit

I don't think any single post can sufficiently explain what "Libertarianism" is. But somebody posted from this article titled Anti-Force Is the Common Denominator just recently in /r/libertarian, and I feel compelled to share it here, to best describe what falls under the shade of the "Libertarian" tree:

>[We] would like to see much less initiation of force in society. We live in a world where lots of misguided people are not satisfied that there’s enough of it yet. They advocate more initiation of force, as evidenced by their desires to deal with every problem under the sun by creating another tax-supported government program...A mature, responsible adult neither seeks undue power over other adults nor wishes to see others subjected to anyone’s controlling schemes and fantasies: This is the traditional meaning of liberty. It’s the rationale for limiting the force of government in our lives. In a free society the power of love, not the love of power, governs our behavior.

>Consider what we do in our political lives these days—and an unfortunate erosion of freedom becomes painfully evident. It’s a commentary on the ascendancy of the love of power over the power of love. We have granted command of over 40 percent of our incomes to federal, state, and local governments, compared to 6 or 7 percent a century ago. And more than a few Americans seem to think that 40 percent still isn’t enough.

>We claim to love our fellow citizens while we hand government ever more power over their lives, hopes, and pocketbooks. We’ve erected what Margaret Thatcher derisively termed the “nanny state,” in which we as adults are pushed around, dictated to, hemmed in, and smothered with good intentions as if we’re still children.

"Anti-force"/"anti-coercion" is the unifying theme which has been perpetually elaborated on since the Age of Enlightenment, so its not like this is anything new. Libertarians may call themselves anarchists, anarcho-capitalists, laissez-faire capitalists, minarchists, classical liberals, objectivists, thin libertarians, thick libertarians, right libertarian, left libertarian, libertarian socialists, mutualists, and many more terms I am unfamiliar with or have forgotten.

The most heavily represented "libertarians" at least within the Internet/United States are of the "right libertarian" mindset. This is a good sample of the thought this particular tree branch shades - though not all members may necessarily advocate. I would consider myself a member of this constituent, though I would prefer to use the term "classical liberal" to differentiate myself from those with an anarchist mentality (and because it sounds more elegant ;) ). As a brief exposition, I recommend reading The Law (available for free online) by Frederic Bastiat or, the book that converted me, The Road to Serfdom by FA Hayek.

In any event, the "anti-force" mentality strongly contrasts with the rhetoric and ideology found on both sides of the congressional aisle - on the one hand you have moralists who want to tell you what you can and can't do with your body, and on the other hand you have collectivists who want to tell you what you can and can't do with your property (i.e. what you own), while both agree that blowing things up makes the world a better place.

That, I think is the best I can describe the Libertarian movement (though as demonstrated, this movement has existed for several centuries).

edit: Here is a list of some youtube channels I subscribe to that can can be classified as Libertarian:

u/haroldp · 23 pointsr/Libertarian

The "specific problems" are secondary symptoms. They all have the same root cause. It's not a case of them "bungling" socialism. It's exactly what you should expect as an outcome.

F A Hayek wrote the detailed script for this morbid play in the 1940s, and Chavez happily staged it again in Venezuela.

u/myownfreesociety · 9 pointsr/Libertarian

This is arguably the best book on libertarianism: http://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf

"No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic."

"But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime."

This is probably the other classic I'd recommend.
http://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0226320618

u/selfoner · 6 pointsr/Libertarian

Nobody has mentioned The Road to Serfdom [Amazon] by Hayek, probably available in your local library.

(note: this is an argument against a centrally planned economy, which is irrelevant to many forms of market socialism, as CasedOutside has already pointed out)

u/manifold1 · 5 pointsr/MGTOW

I am going to read a book - The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich A. Hayek

u/QueerTransAlpaca · 3 pointsr/JordanPeterson

I mean I believe you that you want to know more about him. I'm just not sure your post here is genuine. Its the conversation itself I find suspect.

First of all you are not simply left leaning. Its clear from your post history that you are aware of and buy into Marxist ideology surrounding power structures.

Secondly, if you want to learn about Peterson why are you posting here first? There are hundreds if not thousands of hours of video on youtube where he outlines his ideas. You can literally google "Jordan Peterson on X" and get a dozen 5 min videos of him talking about that subject. If you just wanted to understand him or his views you would start there then bring your questions about his statements here.

Now maybe I'm wrong, not like it doesn't happen regularly. In that case I wouldn't start with Petersons arguments against communism. Peterson identifies himself as a classical liberal. So his arguments against communism should generally align with classically liberal or libertarian viewpoints surrounding collectivism. With that in mind read "Free to Choose" by Milton Freedman and/or "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. (these are my two top choices) Then, understanding the basic arguments against socialism/communism, look into JBPs views with a new perspective. I'm not trying to say reading those books will change your mind, but they will give you the actual arguments and not the typical strawman you get on the internet.

https://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0226320618/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523154978&sr=8-2&keywords=road+to+serfdom

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Choose-Statement-Milton-Friedman-ebook/dp/B004MYFLBS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523155001&sr=8-1&keywords=free+to+choose

u/do_u_like_fishsticks · 2 pointsr/Economics

A noob who wants to read a textbook, or a noob who just wants to read something interesting in the economics area?

Textbook noob - The Economic Way of Thinking

Novel noob - The Price of Everything

Libertarian noob - The Road to Serfdom

Like anything, the textbook will be the least bias, and everything else you will want to understand the bias of the author to get an accurate picture of the profession.

u/jub-jub-bird · 2 pointsr/AskALiberal

> I'm gonna read that book just to get a better idea of what exactly I'm advocating for.

LOL, not my intention to spread the ideas I disagree with. But it sounded like a thesis you would.

> Do we know this? I don't think we do

I think the evidence suggests this. And it makes sense to me that the lives of people who highly value self-reliance are going to generally be far better than those who don't share that value and who are perfectly content to be on the dole.

At the risk of going down a completely different rabbit trail my view is actually a little more complex since I DO think interdependence in the context of family and community is important and of great value. I'm all for Edmund Burke "little platoons" of family, church and local neighborhood. It is large impersonal institutions that reliably fail, they cannot know and love the individual, they cannot make the moral judgments that a loving parent, or an increasingly impatient neighbor might make when presented with yet another plea for next month's rent. I very much agree with the title of Hillary Clinton's book "It takes a village" I don't think she understood the full meaning of the proverb... since she turned it around to mean: "It take a large impersonal bureaucracy" which is NOT the same thing at all.

> If you have any other reading suggestions then I'll take a look. I don't want to become massively entrenched in my views

None of these are necessarily related to your discussion though they might touch on some similar topics.

I recently read Haidt's The Righteous Mind not actually a conservative book but one which is really interesting in terms of figuring out why liberals and conservatives talk past each other.

And there's always the conservative classics that you'll always get when people ask. A few personal favorites: Kirke's The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom though technically he'd insist on calling himself as a "liberal" (By which he means a classical 19th century liberal) I liked Bastiate's The Law if you want an actual 19th century liberal. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

Those last two are both relatively quick and easy reads.

And of course Sowell has written extensively on exactly this subject. I think Race and Economics was his first book so it may be a bit dated now.

Sadly I've not read that one nor his other books that seem most directly related to our discussion. Personally I've only read his Basic Economics and I read Race and Culture years ago which is somewhat related but about the impact of race, ethnicity and culture in an international setting. His ideas about the primacy of cultural capital in explaining group differences in economic capital are consistent but he's applying those concepts internationally in how various cultural groups have done economically as majorities, as minorities, migrants, conquers or conquered etc. it's been a while but I remembered more about the overseas Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia than about blacks in America.

u/hga_another · 2 pointsr/KotakuInAction

It hardly matters what they want:

"If only Stalin knew".

Also see, for example, Hayek's fairly short although dense "The Road to Serfdom", or perhaps the Reader's Digest condensed version, which he found to be marvelous, see the "Why the worst get on top" section.

Although based on a quick skim just now of the latter, it looks like avoids a serious treatment of the information theoretic explanation for why planned economies are impossible (there's to much information, as represented by prices, for a few planners at the top to grok, and constantly adjust for). I suppose that's fairly well know by now, but it was the single most enlightening thing I took from it when I read it in the early 1980s, back when our betters were sure the Soviet Union would win the Cold War, and that that was for the best.

u/rufus_driftwood · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

>Is there any actual evidence backing this claim?

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0226320618

http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Freedom-Anniversary-Milton-Friedman/dp/0226264211

http://mises.org/books/socialism/contents.aspx


> i know that extremely high taxes would be detrimental but im thinking about taxes like 30-40%.

30-40% taxes are extremely high. Michael Caine and many others have vowed to leave England if the top tax rate exceeds 50%.

u/repoman · 2 pointsr/philosophy

I'd probably bundle this with this; the former so each survivor can take care of himself and the latter so they'll understand how to treat each other to prevent another apocalypse.

u/scarthearmada · 2 pointsr/Anarcho_Capitalism

>One of my friends who is a "limited government" libertarian told me the problem with anarchy is that it will lead to more government. I of course responded, well that seems to be the problem with limited government too.

So, anarchy leads to government (probably always to an extent, but there are examples of anarcho societies that have existed longer than the United States has been a nation). Limited government leads to more government. And more government leads to more government. Therefore we're all fucked?

>There seems to be noway in preventing this band of criminals from taking over society. It seems that man is just doomed to live in tyranny.

Eh, not really. History is cyclical -- it has no (universal) end. Fukuyama was wrong about that, and an asshole. Mises, Hayek and Flynn were right: government leads to more government, and liberty is abandoned at home. Such societies reach a stage of cultural and economic stagnation.

Heinlein probably nailed it best in -- or at least perhaps most famously -- in speculative fiction. Various works of his explore political systems as changing depending upon how far away from home you are. People join together to form tribes, and they live in villages. Villages grow into towns, towns into cities, cities into kingdoms / nations. Nations into empires. Empires collapse, and political life becomes more local again.

And, as people become politically frustrated, economically or religiously oppressed, or more adventurous (as a result of accumulated wealth), they begin to explore the frontier, and so the process starts all over again in another place. That's the cycle of history.

For western civilization, the exploration took Europeans around the world, and founded colonies in the Americas. Wealth accumulated. Government grew, as economies were able to support it. And much of the developing world was lifted up with us. So now we're starting to explore the next frontier: space.

Liberty will again reign, just not here. The beauty of it this time, however, is that space is practically infinite. Space will be free.

u/hobbified · 1 pointr/technology
u/Lash_ · 1 pointr/freefolk

Of course I'll read some books. Perhaps you should do some reading as well. May I make a few suggestions?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226320618/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400034094/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/140009593X/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195051807/

u/paxprimetemp · 1 pointr/changemyview

Yes "The Road to Serfdom" is a truly prolific work, and absolutely worth the read. It's very approachable, and only talks about the economics of socialism in the first few chapters - most of the rest of the book is dedicated to the morality of collectivism VS. freedom.
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0226320618

I would also try to read "Ideas have consequences" by Richard Weaver. It's a bit more condensed - but extremely valuable insight for our current political trends

u/rangerkozak · -1 pointsr/business

The fantasy is the success of centrally-planned economies. There is tremendous evidence suggesting that liberty works best:

  • West German vs East Germany
  • South Korea vs North Korea
  • Hong Kong in the 80s vs China in the 80s
  • Estonia vs Latvia or Lithuania
  • Botswana vs the rest of Africa
  • Chile vs the rest of S. America

    This debate was settled (again) when the Berlin wall fell, at yet socialist ideas continue to rise from the grave. I'll never understand the public's lust for tyranny.

    Recommend Hayek's Road to Serfdom
u/DuncanIdahos7thClone · -1 pointsr/Documentaries

You clowns are not normal. You should read this: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fiftieth-Anniversary/dp/0226320618