The Life & Thought of Friedrich Hayek

The Intellectual Portrait Series: The Life and Thought of Friedrich A. Hayek (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003)

Books Featured

Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
http://mises.org/books/socialism/contents.aspx

Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle
http://aussienomics.com/files/monetarytheory.pdf

Contra Keynes and Cambridge:essays, correspondence
https://sites.google.com/site/malthus0splace/home/hayek/pure-economics

The Road to Serfdom
https://sites.google.com/site/malthus0splace/home/hayek/political-theory

Description:
The 20th century witnessed the unparalleled expansion of government power over the lives and livelihoods of individuals. Much of this was the result of two devastating world wars and totalitarian ideologies that directly challenged individual liberty and the free institutions of the open society. Other forms of expansion in the provision of social welfare and the regulation of the economy, while more benign in their objectives, nevertheless posed significant challenges to personal freedom. Few individuals did more to both extend our understanding of the economic processes of the free society and alert us to the dangers inherent in the growth of political power than the Nobel-laureate economist and social theorist, Friedrich A. Hayek. In over half a century of writing and teaching, he showed why National Socialism was the very antithesis of capitalism, why communism was an economic and political philosophy ultimately doomed to failure, and why we must be wary of government intervention if we are to preserve the freedoms that make democracy and prosperity possible.

Over the course of his intellectual career, Hayek set out an inspiring vision for a free society, based on principles elaborated in such works as The Constitution of Liberty and Law, Legislation and Liberty.

In a life that spanned almost the entire 20th century, he went from being dismissed, ridiculed, and ignored, to being acclaimed as perhaps this century's most significant social scientist and philosopher. To a remarkable degree, his story is the story of the 20th century.

Program length: 60 minutes.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• The
• Life
• Thought
• of
• Friedrich
• Hayek
• Mises
• Keynes

[heathmoor]

Alan Ebenstein: "…Hayek argued that central planning authorities don't develop that sort of planning ability, that they're inevitably bureaucratic, and they prevent the new and the creative and the diverse from emerging, and that what you wanna do is to have a society in which individuals are free to do as much as what they want, whatever they wanna do, as long as they're not physically harming someone else." (16:25)

Aren't patent rights and intellectual ownership against this philosophy?

[Malthus0]

@heathmoor I think Epstien overstates Hayek's position with this quote ''as long as they're not physically harming someone else''. Hayek used the term coercion in a more nuanced definition of coercion then just physical harm, & which may rule out patent rights and intellectual ownership as coercive in themselves. However Hayek was highly dubious about the economic benifits of patents. See Steven Kinsella's posts on the topic on mises.org for the quotes.

[heathmoor]

The automatic YouTube transcription really sucks, I bet it starts at about 17:40

I wonder why I have it turned on in the first place. At times it's hard to understand what Hayek is saying, but in this documentary he actually speaks very little.

[Malthus0]

@heathmoor Close; I have only corrected the youtube transcription up to 17:00 so far.

[WTFisaSquaLL]

Whoever did the subtitles needs to have his or her ear's checked.

[Malthus0]

@WTFisaSquaLL The subtitles are not finished yet. I am in the process of correcting the mistakes made by the automatic youtube transcription. When they are ready I will send out a bulletin and place an annotation at the begining of video.

[vailoseldon]

Thank you!

[PazGuerro]

"Government errors would be compounded when the same planners that made them then tried to set them right, then leading to more intervention."

Sound familiar, America? We are in deep, deep water right now.

[Tacotruck1166]

@demirparcasi How many of the latest technological feats have come at the command of government officials?

[demirparcasi]

Hayek was succeful explaning theoratically pricing mechnasim on the market and why central planner can not manage an economy efficiently. It is proven that long lasting central planning is inefficient like Hayek's theories. At the same time there are various example that a central planning and legislations has positive effect and benefits on the economy and society. Such as Goverment support for researching and developing new technologies, poor people, health, education, security etc.

[zoikles1]

Great video! I'm so curious about Hayek now. I consider myself to be a Neo-Keynesian in terms of technical macroeconomics, but I find his views on political philosophy very interesting. Thanks!

[s13iLLuminati]

Good God! I feel so ignorant watching this! Not because I don't understand it, I do, I just wish I had learned about this so much sooner. I wish I had been taught this in school. I wish more people would know the truth. But true knowledge like this seems like it's going extinct! They don't teach this in High School because they want to keep us dumb and enslaved to the state! The bible says: "My people perish for a lack of knowledge..." God save this land. We must inspire the next generations!