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While reading the “The Road to Serfdom” It quickly became very clear how Hayek felt. He felt as if government planning of the economy would lead to totalitarnism. I feel as if he is right. This is largely due to the fact that if the government has full control over making all economic decisions (or any and all decisions in general) that would essentially be dictators of a free world. I feel as if this could be compared to Hitler with the Nazi camps. As Hayek said, “a totalitarian system cannot happen here.” I agree with Hayek all the way that totalitarian system cannot happen anywhere, I feel this way because when we let our governments make every decision that controls us, we are living as socialism. This tends to be a worse form.
In the reading Hayek says, “Our generation has forgotten that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom.” I believe that Hayek is referring to that if the governments were to lean more to a totalitarian system that the people would eventually lose their land which means that the freedom you once knew is gone. When Hayek discusses depriving private individuals of the power, they possess in an individualist system I believe he is referring to that when we transfer power over to society that by giving it all out to the people, we are setting ourselves up for failure. We need to still have a form of government to govern the people but not dictate every move.
Hayek feels as if planning leads to dictatorship. He’s meaning that in a sense of planning will lead to everything being done in one certain way and that nothing else will work in a sense. While he feels as if this will be a loss to freedom, I feel as if planning is a good thing. Now when you get to overplanning and stipulating that it must be done in a certain way that is how a dictatorship starts which Hayek refers to in the reading.
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The great utopia is described as the view that socialism and individual freedom can be combined. This means that people believe that all peoples could be under full government control and them making all decisions for everyone but still having the ability to make their own personal decisions in life whether it be deciding what they do with their money, what they purchase, or what they owe. I personally do not fell as if this is achievable, because when you take government control and freedom and combine it you see that it does not work as the two do not go together. I feel as if many other people would also agree. You find today that most people like to make their own decisions and live life how they see fit. Hayek himself said that “Democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is simply not achievable,” which I believe we find most people to agree with. Hayek says, “Advancement within a totalitarian group or party depends largely on a willingness to do immoral things.” I feel as if at this point and time that this was published that he was referring to the Germans with the death camps. I feel as if he was right, when they were invading Poland and killing Jews at a rapid pace so that they could eventually get rid of all of their kind and obtain the land. They disregarded all morals and ethics of life to get what they were wanting to achieve. They were prepared to do whatever it took for them to obtain what they wanted most and that required them to disregard lives and hurt innocent people.
Hayek says, “To build a better world, we must have the courage to make a new start.” He is spot on with this statement, I feel as if this especially true in our own personal lives. If we do clear the blockage from the past we will not have the ability to make a better life for ourselves. The same go for making a better world to live in. We must then be prepared to be spontaneous and try new things to make one want to achieve greatness.