The Road to Serfdom (in cartoons) by Frederick Hayek

[perdondaris]

Stalinism/McCarthyism is the use of government terror to maintain order. All government terrors have a justification--there actually were people trying to destroy Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Nazi Germany just as there were Communists who wanted to overthrow the America plutocracy in the 1950s. All governments are oligarchies. The smaller the oligarchy (non-representative) the more necessary it is to use terror and propaganda to maintain it. America's plutocratic oligarchy is no different.

[perdondaris]

Corporatism is capitalism. Corporations are profit driven enterprises, not socialist enterprises. Hayek was wrong on a whole slew of items. True or pure capitalism is called plutocracy. To maintain "true" or "pure" capitalism would require a government that practiced the worst strains of terror and propaganda--think of Stalinism coupled with right wing Christian terrorist groups like Operation Rescue and the KKK.

[MrTreantHugger]

@perdondaris KKK and Stalinism. What are you talking about?

[atlasman55]

How ironic that that those who sponsored this piece of anti-government propaganda - General Motors - were recently rescued from extinction by the US government. This video also goes to show just how completely incorrect Hayek's predictions were.

[samsonlovesyou]

...It's like it was written by a child.

[eltiare]

The irony here is quite thick. Central planning here seems to be ok as long as the people at the bottom get benefits? Welfare is a collection of bribes to keep the scams running. Central planning is what enabled corporations to take over. We need to end it in all forms. True capitalism (aka free market capitalism) balks at having central planner.

[MiHiVidz]

While in the US, Hayek drew off of the US Social Security and Medicaid system (both are programs that he wanted to see abolished).

He was encouraged to go on the dole by none other than Charles Koch, notorious Social Security hater and billionaire bankroller of various anti-Soc. Sec. groups.

Just like Ayn Rand (who also drew off Social Security in her declining years), he's another hypocrite who took advantage of social programs that they wanted to keep other people from getting.

[sethisawesome]

@MiHiVidz If true, that is most unfortunate. Still, though, I think it goes to show that where there is incentive there will be action. Remove the social programs and remove the incentive, right?

[MiHiVidz]

@sethisawesome It is true what he did, and just proves that these people who want to remove these programs are selfish, narcissistic jerks who want to inflict cruelty on the helpless yet covet these same assistance programs for themselves.

At the core of these people isn't objectivism, but pure unadulterated sadism, which they try to wrap in a cultish cloak of John Galt BS in order to legitimize their evil.

[Dodec84]

The message is you should stop complaining and accept the status quo? Because when you vote for "planners", it leads to some radical dictator? So we just need to accept the status quo? Sounds also like a dictatorship to me ...

[arcadeninjasan]

Why is it that in two key industries, education and healthcare, we are too afraid as a people to let go of government control and let the free market work? In no country in the world (at least I can't think of any) is there a free enterprise model in the education or healthcare.

I think these barriers play a large part in what's holding not just America but most of the world back. Think about it. Everywhere college tuition and medical bills are rising sharply with no demonstrable benefit.

[ckerton1]

@arcadeninjasan Privatize the army as well. But wait that would turn them into mercenaries and the moral basis would be destroyed. The same is true of education and healthcare. Less private intervention in education and healthcare would be better. Why profit from the ignorant and sick?

[perdondaris]

Hitler was a nationalist whose goals were to compete with other nations for world domination. Hitler called Jews "international bankers" not capitalists. Hitler received funding from capitalists at every stage of the game. Corporatism is a form of capitalism.You can't have religion without churches and you can't have capitalism without corporatism. I suppose you believe everything you read, perhaps North Korea really is a Democratic Republic--that is what they call themselves isn't it?

[PrivateAckbar]

@perdondaris Corporatism is more accurately a form of socialism. In a free market corporations don't last. You only get corporatism through big government.

[perdondaris]

The problem with Hayek is that there is no "free market" but only competing forces that use coercion through violence (the Iraq War) and intimidation (Walmart unionbusting) and government handouts (TARP, pork barrel). Religion is a big example of this form of "free market". Hayek's policies have been used by Democratic and Republican administrations for the past 3 decades. So far that experiment has failed. Fascism is a violent form of capitalism--just as Communism is militant socialism.

[BigWilly360]

I'm tired of hearing this tripe.

Fascism is NOT capitalism. It's economic policies are CORPORATISM. Corporatism is a LEFT-WING ECONOMIC POLICY, in that GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION helps and guides corporations. OBAMACARE IS AN EXAMPLE OF FASCIST ECONOMIC POLICY. Capitalism is the result of decreased government intervention and the power of markets, not tweaking markets because of some belief in its inefficiency.

[perdondaris]

@BigWilly360 You have not read a history of the 20th Century have you?Hitler and Mussolini did not nationalize industry and businessmen in right wing totalitarian states used the slavery. You should look up IBM, IG Farben and Krupps in relation with the 3rd Reich. Also a group of Wall Street financiers plotted to overthrow FDR after his election in 1932. Corporatism is a right wing economic policy. Universal health care is practiced in every industrialized nation in the world. Is Canada Fascist?

[BigWilly360]

@perdondaris Did you read what I wrote? Like, at all? Corporatism is a result of government intervention. Hitler hired those corporations. That was not a result of free market capitalism. Just because business owners like something, or benefit from it, doesn't mean it's capitalist or right-wing.

Read every single complaint Hitler had about Jews. Replace "Jew" with "capitalist". Thus, "capitalists" care only for money. To Hitler, Jews were capitalists. It's called National SOCIALISM for a reason

[ernestcrunkleton]

@BigWilly360  Please educated yourself, Right wing corporate welfare is destroying this country not foodstamps and medicaid.

[ckerton1]

@BigWilly360 You'll find that fascism would certainly sit on right of the political spectrum. Universal healthcare could not be further from Fascist doctrine. Obviously Fascists would not give it out universally. Is that simple enough for you?

Capitalism is simply private ownership of the means of production. It is not overly dependent on how interventionist the government is. Either political wing can enable or disrupt it.

[unclebanana]

This argument is a complete speculative slippery slope with no basis in material reality. It belongs in the realm of religious obscurantism, palm reading, mysticism, and other forms of charlatanism.

[bapyou]

Contrast this tripe with the Communist Manifesto. Von Hayek is all airy-fairy hypothetical situation, whereas Marx and Engels discuss the contemporary scene in Europe bolstering their arguments with real historic situations. Hayek's "work" comes off as an extremely politely-toned thinly-veiledanti-commie screed.

No wonder I hate conservatives. There's no "there" there!

Give me a good leftie intellectual any day: Theodor Adorno, Guy Debord, or even Emma Fucking Goldman fer chrissakes.

[Mystrymeat]

It's a shame that so few take a look at gems such as these to see how the world around them works. But why educate yourself with videos teaching the workings of the world when you can see a "KITTEN BEING TICKLED!!!!!".

[NietzscheanMan]

"Power corrupts the few, weakness corrupts the many"

[goldsilverandiamonds]

Welcome to your, new OBAMA-NATION. Very scary how this video seems to be right on with current events.

[Offatwork]

Monopolies are created from the absence of competition. NOT some inevitable act derived FROM competition.

The very policies socialists hold so dear, the attempt to remove monopolies from play, is the very act that they are giving to a central body.

THEY create monopolies.

The greatest enemy of free enterprise is big business AND, even more so, big government.

[ckerton1]

@Offatwork Free markets do not give competition which stops monopolies. The only competition will be among everyone else, who gets a wage from this monopoly. At least government decides who is powerful be some semblance of equality and democracy. The market arbitrarily picks who is richest and makes him king.

I can't believe you are so naive to to think that competition wouldn't allow for monopolies. By the way can a competition be won? yes by monopolies.

[ckerton1]

Just replace planner with capitalist owner of the means of production and its the same thing hahaha.

He fights for freedom, the freedom to make money of others. At least planner started with good intentions.

Freedom of speech. Now that I can get behind, not this nonsense.

[Csmallo]

@ckerton1

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot all had "good intentions".

[ckerton1]

@Csmallo I was joking. The fact that the capitalist produces the same results as the planner is just ironic. Most of the time they walk hand in hand. Though both can destroy on their own.

[atlasman55]

@Offatwork Perfect competition is a myth (to use a word Milton Friedman loved so much). Monopolies arise organically out of markets because markets do not obey the simple little laws that economists think they should obey.

[jimwalsh2001]

The greatest enemy of free enterprise is big business.

[Offatwork]

And big business is created by government involvement: "The superior efficiency of large establishments has not been demonstrated; the advantages that are supposed to destroy competition have failed to manifest themselves in many fields. [Monopolies] are attained through collusive agreements and promoted by public policies. When these agreements are invalidated, and these policies reversed, competitive conditions can be restored." -National Economic Committee

[unclebanana]

@Offatwork Ever heard of the second half of the 19th century?

[seeky907]

'The Road to Serfdom', brought to you by General Motors.

Heh.

[Offatwork]

You may want to read up a bit and see where the government were not doing their job; it is a very significant catalyst of our current issues with the economy.

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Adam Smith

Government needs to stop fraud from happening and they didn't, in fact, they outright (through passive ignorance) ignored it.