The Road to Serfdom (Mike Chieco)

The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek, 258 pages

I found the book while roaming in Mr. Chaput’s classroom.

1. Summary: The Road to Serfdom is an economic piece of literature that deals with the way that governments are changing around the world. Through his point of view, Hayek explains how even the most collective and even countries, will eventually be lead down the path of tyranny and dictatorship. Hayek uses Nazi Germany as an example of just how this happens, and it really hits home as you read this book. He explains how one mistake by the government, or failure to do something right, will throw the entire country off key. The people will react to that as seeing the government as a failure, and that they must now take it upon themselves to become the government. Once this happens, Hayek explains that if a person who is a great leader, and speaks to the peoples needs, that will eventually lead to tyranny and down the road to serfdom.
2. The audience for this book would be those who enjoy an in depth read of the economic world.
3. Hayek enjoys setting his point of view forth. He has a very descriptive style of what he feels is happening with these ever so changing countries.
“While democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” (84)
4. Passages:
-“What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven. F. Hoelderlin” (249)
This passage strikes me as very ironical, but also very true. We spend 99 percent of our time trying to make ourselves happy. While doing that, we are only hurting everyone else, which in turn makes where we live hell on earth.
-“Few are ready to recognize that the rise of fascism and nazism was not a reaction against the socialist trends of the preceding period but a necessary outcome of those tendencies.” (154)
This is a passage I chose due to the accurateness of his point of views. Hayek seems to be a very knowledgeable man, and what he wrote really opened my eyes to the way that the world works sometimes.
-“The inevitable consequence of socialist planning create a state of affairs in which, if the policy is to be pursued, totalitarian forces will get the upper hand.” (132)
This passage strikes me as the summary of his entire novel. This passage explains what his whole novel is about. Personally, I believed what he was talking about completely.
5. My Relationship:
I felt that after reading this novel that I did not regret reading it. I feel as though I had learned a great amount from the author, and that he knew what he was talking about. I can now see where countries go wrong and turn to dictatorships, and I feel as though those countries should take the time to read this novel. It is an eye opening novel.