This past week we read "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek. The main message of this book is that when planning to create a society, the government styles of either socialism or totalitarianism comes into play. Along with either of these styles, the freedom of the people goes away. For some of the chapters, Hayek discusses how countries that were democratic, eventually took everything for granted because of all the freedom they had. In fact, countries like Russia, Italy, and Germany adopted dictatorships. Often times, I think the people who live in America today take their freedoms for granted. I am incredibly grateful to live in this country and to be able to wake up every day and be who I want to be. Some people, however, aren't as grateful to live here even though they know they are blessed. Hayek also discusses planning and how not everyone has the same outcome in mind. Due to varying ideas, it will eventually lead to a downfall of government. In my management class, we discuss different ways to manage people and how to plan out how to deal with certain outcomes. Planning can cause people in authority to treat the workers in a very mechanistic way, which would not be productive in the long run. Similarly, since the government would be in charge, they would have a say in everything; especially who gets paid what and how much they get paid. Something that Hayek discussed later in "The Road to Serfdom" was the fact that people who aren't equipped to be a good leader are attracted to politics. This is because of the planning aspect of politics. This is evident in some of the presidents the United States has had. Some of the most favored leaders of the media are actually corrupt and not as good as they seem. Overall, I truly enjoyed reading this book and learning about how certain things in government can lead to another. I also enjoyed it since some of it kind of pertains to what I am learning in other classes.
