The month of September is quite important for those who comprehend what it means to live free in a Constitutional Republic. First of all, it is the month that we celebrate our rule of law — the United States Constitution. Well, some do. It is still amazing to me that we had a presidential debate in the National Constitution Center, and not a mention was made of, or was there any reference to, the Constitution. Then, the following week, it was the 237th anniversary of our US Constitution. The day, and truly the week, went by without any grand fanfare. Is it any wonder that our Country is in such turmoil and why we have a particular philosophy of governance that prefers the three branches of rule over the three branches of government as prescribed in the Constitution?
However, this month also gives us another anniversary. Back in June, my wife Angela and our dear friends Steve and Lauren traveled to Normandy, France, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. I was honored to have the opportunity to participate in two commemorative Airborne jumps. This September was also the 80th anniversary of the largest-ever Airborne operation, Operation Market Garden. Perhaps you recall the movie A Bridge Too Far.
But, the anniversary this missive would like to bring to your attention and its prescience for us today is the 80th anniversary of Friedrich August von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. His incredible economic writing was published in the United States in September 1944 by the University of Chicago Press. I wonder if they would print it today? Some thirty years later, on October 9, 1974, Hayek was announced as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics. Imagine that. He actually did something to earn his Nobel Prize, unlike Barack Obama. And that is really the crux of what Hayek presents: economic empowerment, economic freedom, economic meritocracy and that is why we should all read his work today.
How interesting it is that in April 1945, Reader’s Digest published a 20-page version of The Road to Serfdom. It was widely read. Sadly today, Americans are not deep readers and thinkers, hence why we find ourselves on said road to serfdom.
Hayek’s premise was that society has mistakenly tried to ensure continuing prosperity by centralized economic planning, which inevitably leads to totalitarianism. Sound familiar? Centralized economic planning is inherently undemocratic in Hayek’s view because it requires “that the will of a small minority be imposed upon the people.” Hayek felt that the power of these minorities to act by taking money or property (Bastiat called it legal plunder, leftists call it fair share) in pursuit of centralized goals destroys the Rule of Law and individual freedoms. Can I get an Amen? “The individual would more than ever become a mere means, to be used by the authority in the service of such abstractions as the ‘social welfare’ (leftists call it social justice) or the ‘good of the community.'”
Think about Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, Jimmy Carter’s “Community Reinvestment Act”, and now we have Kamala Harris’ “Opportunity Economy.”
Hayek did not believe in government intervention in free markets. Remember George W. Bush’s statement, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system?” Hayek would disagree with that action, and truthfully, the economic meltdown then under Bush was the result of a mortgage crisis started by Carter’s policy…putting the government into the mortgage industry, thereby producing the subprime mortgage lending crisis. Now, Hayek did believe that there were cases where the government had a role: preventing fraud, creating a safety net (not a hammock), and regulations that ensure legal methods of production with equal application. He was certainly against coercive interference with economic life. I bet he would not agree with telling the public that they must buy electric vehicles or certain appliances in their homes.
Even before Hayek, there was a young Frenchman who visited America, Alexis de Tocqueville, who warned us of another road…the road to servitude. He asserted, “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference; while Democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. Today, progressive socialist leftists refer to this as “equity,” meaning equality of outcomes.
Marxists want us to believe that they can make it all great for everyone when, in essence, they are promoting shared misery rather than individual achievement. They denigrate the individual in order to elevate the collective. Hayek intonated that socialism is a hypocritical system because its professed humanitarian goals can only be put into practice by brutal methods. He stated, “While the last resort of a competitive economy is the bailiff, the ultimate sanction of a planned economy is the hangman.”
Hayek also affirmed that centralized systems require effective propaganda so that the people come to believe that the state’s (government) goals are theirs. And God knows that we have a propagandized state media in America today that is now asking why Kamala Harris should define her policies and answer questions. You know what comes next? Yep, you’re a racist and a sexist if you ask her questions.
We still have some days left in the month of September. How about ya pick up Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and read it, or at least go back and read the 1945 20-page version from Reader’s Digest.
If we want to Live Free, how about let’s stay off the Road to Serfdom—the Road to Servitude—and remember… “The Road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Steadfast and Loyal.
