The Road to Serfdom (in cartoons) by Frederick Hayek

A cartoon adaptation of F.A. Hayek's classic treatise on the dangers of government intervention into the economy.

Also included are annotations that draw parallels to recent events in American politics and economic affairs.

Hayek's book was published in 1944, first in Britain and later in the USA.

The Reader's Digest condensed version appeared in 1945, and led to the original's widespread popularity in the US. You can download it here:

http://www.freedomride.us/wp-content/documents/road-to-serfdom-RD.pdf

The cartoon was created in the early 1950's and distributed in pamphlet form by General Motors Corp, ironically enough...

This was the bible of the right-wing decades ago, maybe when they used to actually believe in it. But, substitute "corporation" in the place of "government" and this little tome still holds true. The right-wingers forget that fascism, government run by corporations, does the same things as bad old communism...except maybe worse. Remember, the National Socialist party (NAZI's) was run by CAPITALISTS! IBM supplied Hollerith punch card machines to tally Jews in concentration camps! Hitler was supported by CAPITALISTS! He even got birthday gifts from Henry Ford for God's sake!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• politics
• cartoon
• F.A.
• Hayek
• classic
• treatise
• government
• intervention
• economy
• IBM

[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.

[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?

[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.

[MrTreantHugger]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.