The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek: Summary and Analysis — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00freedom it's one of these ideas that
- 0:03everyone loves that people are
- 0:04universally willing to die for to
- 0:07sacrifice for
- 0:08and it's different according to who you
- 0:10ask right because there are some people
- 0:12that say
- 0:13oh hey we might live in a dictatorship
- 0:16but it's our dictatorship right so
- 0:17there's no outside coercion going on
- 0:20it's our thing going on right you got to
- 0:22think fascist italians right there were
- 0:25a lot of people in that regime that were
- 0:27like you know what we might have a
- 0:29military dictatorship but we are
- 0:32fundamentally free it's ours
- 0:34and then you have people on the other
- 0:36side of the spectrum who say that you
- 0:38know people like the swiss right we want
- 0:40to have a vote and the government
- 0:42actually does it right so we are only
- 0:45free if we can tell the government what
- 0:47to do and they actually do it
- 0:50very different conceptions of freedom
- 0:52now one of the most compelling ideas of
- 0:55freedom comes from friedrich von hayek
- 0:58who was an austrian-born british
- 1:00economist hayak was alive during one of
- 1:03the worst times for freedom in history
- 1:06right there's the soviet union there's
- 1:08the fascist governments of italy and
- 1:10germany
- 1:11and even in the us and the uk it looks
- 1:14like they were abandoning freedom too so
- 1:17in this episode we are going to be
- 1:19exploring the road to serfdom that he
- 1:22wrote in response to the dying freedom
- 1:25of his age hello there my friends
- 1:28welcome back to history for thinkers a
- 1:30show that brings history to life
- 1:34before we get into it i want to give a
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- 1:58information
- 1:59now
- 2:00let's get into the episode so in this
- 2:02book friedrich van hayek is going to
- 2:04argue that freedom
- 2:06is dying out and not in places that you
- 2:09would expect like the soviet union or
- 2:11nazi germany but places like the us and
- 2:14the uk
- 2:15and he believes that it is
- 2:17all based on central planning right
- 2:20government control of the economy this
- 2:22is ultimately he argues going to lead to
- 2:26a totalitarian dictatorship more or less
- 2:29so he is very worried about that and
- 2:30he's you know this is kind of his way of
- 2:33screaming to the world hey
- 2:35you know totalitarian dictatorships are
- 2:37coming here right it's coming to the us
- 2:39it's coming to the uk if we don't stop
- 2:42this nonsense that we're doing
- 2:45now this was written during world war ii
- 2:47so
- 2:48you know some people have said that he
- 2:50was overly paranoid about it right some
- 2:52government interference in the economy
- 2:54isn't the end of the world right um so
- 2:57just understand that there are many
- 2:58criticisms of this work
- 3:01as well
- 3:02but you can ultimately view friedrich
- 3:04von hayek as a classical liberal
- 3:06so he wants to expand economic freedom
- 3:09and individual liberty as much as
- 3:11humanly possible right that is the most
- 3:13important thing not just for the
- 3:15government but for all of humanity right
- 3:18we need to be able to make our own
- 3:19choices to sink or swim on our own
- 3:23and that is really the basis for this
- 3:25book
- 3:27but we need to start with some
- 3:28definitions because the book is called
- 3:30the road to serfdom what the heck is
- 3:32serfdom right
- 3:34so serfdom
- 3:36is a political economic and social
- 3:38system most prevalent during medieval
- 3:41europe
- 3:43so here are a couple things that
- 3:44describe it now this is pretty much
- 3:46universally
- 3:47reviled by most people you know during
- 3:49the 1900s and especially today right we
- 3:52look back on
- 3:54serfdom as kind of backward regressive
- 3:56right it kind of sucks and here are a
- 3:59couple of reasons right so there's this
- 4:01rigid
- 4:02hierarchical system
- 4:04you are based you know if you're above
- 4:06someone you can tell them to do whatever
- 4:08the heck and they they kind of have to
- 4:10listen
- 4:11right so it's very rigid very
- 4:13hierarchical
- 4:14you know their every single relationship
- 4:17with every single person that you know
- 4:19is you know i'm above them or i'm below
- 4:22them and you know exactly
- 4:24you know by how much right
- 4:27so there's no social mobility so it
- 4:29doesn't matter how smart you are how
- 4:31hard you work what you do you know you
- 4:33can be the best person in the world or
- 4:35the worst
- 4:36right you are
- 4:37in your social status and that's it
- 4:41and that wouldn't be the end of the
- 4:43world except right you inherit your
- 4:46status so if you are
- 4:48this brilliant
- 4:50smart person you're you're a deep
- 4:52thinker or you're a great person
- 4:55if you are born a serf
- 4:57you are going to stay a surf right and
- 5:00that's very rough and that very much
- 5:03sucks right so understandably people
- 5:05were happy when this system collapsed
- 5:08and generally serfdom is organized
- 5:11around
- 5:12religion
- 5:14so when you look at you know a place
- 5:16like medieval europe it was around
- 5:18christianity but then there were also
- 5:20places like
- 5:21you know in south america there were
- 5:23certain places in it you know they were
- 5:25organized around those religions right
- 5:27the ancient incas and the mayas
- 5:29um
- 5:30in asia you know a lot of it was
- 5:32organized around the the folk religions
- 5:35right
- 5:37so generally there are three classes in
- 5:39any given
- 5:41surf society or feudal society right
- 5:43whatever word you want to use basically
- 5:45the same thing
- 5:47so there's the nobility right the kings
- 5:50the queens the people that basically
- 5:52control the whole show
- 5:54then there's the clergy right and this
- 5:56doesn't necessarily refer to the
- 5:58christian clergy but you know the
- 6:00priests right the people that are
- 6:02uh
- 6:03that control the the culture more or
- 6:05less
- 6:06and then there's everyone else and it's
- 6:08more or less you know the 99 percent is
- 6:11is serfs
- 6:12so the nobility in the clergy right
- 6:14again they were just the one percent
- 6:16then there's everyone else
- 6:18so the serfs were comparable
- 6:21to slaves right
- 6:24even when you look at uh other feudal
- 6:27societies like in south america for
- 6:28example part of the reason the spanish
- 6:31conquistadors had such an easy time of
- 6:33conquering those civilizations was
- 6:36because well the underclasses were
- 6:38really pissed off and they were they
- 6:41teamed up with the spanish conquistadors
- 6:44right like funnily enough there were a
- 6:46lot of
- 6:46um you know these people that were like
- 6:49yeah i'll i'll help overthrow the system
- 6:51if it means i don't have to be a feudal
- 6:52surf anymore right and you have to
- 6:55imagine
- 6:56probably the same dynamic would have
- 6:57played out if there were foreign
- 6:59invaders coming to europe or any other
- 7:02given civilization for that matter so
- 7:05it kind of ripe for plunder in that way
- 7:08now at least in medieval europe you were
- 7:10not seen as explicitly property but
- 7:14still you were more or less a slave in
- 7:16practice you had no control over your
- 7:18life you had to work and serve an entire
- 7:21class of other people
- 7:24and again like i said
- 7:25to an extent this existed everywhere
- 7:28right from
- 7:29uh
- 7:30from pre-european south america to asia
- 7:34you know all over the place even in
- 7:35africa so this is you know i i kind of
- 7:38think of it as
- 7:40almost like
- 7:41a form of uh of evolution right so
- 7:45governments evolve right we learn from
- 7:47other governments oh if we do things
- 7:49this way we'll get this result and then
- 7:51people inevitably follow the better
- 7:53result right so i just kind of view it
- 7:56as an early iteration
- 7:58of a way to structure society right you
- 8:01compare
- 8:02the old iphone right like maybe the
- 8:05first through the second iphone to the
- 8:06to the iphone today right very stark
- 8:10contrast there right the very early one
- 8:12kind of sucks
- 8:13so
- 8:14you know going back to serfdom is very
- 8:16much seen as like a backward evolution
- 8:19right things are all things are getting
- 8:21better why do you want to bring in
- 8:24central planning in the economy and go
- 8:26back to this right why do you want to go
- 8:28back to serfdom
- 8:30so that's ultimately
- 8:31the line of thought that von hayek is
- 8:34taking here
- 8:36so again he is a big proponent of
- 8:38classical liberalism right individual
- 8:40autonomy he wants economic freedom he
- 8:43wants people to be able to get rich to
- 8:45start businesses to do whatever the heck
- 8:47they want to do
- 8:50and he also advocates largely for
- 8:52civil liberties right so everyone's
- 8:54equal before the law
- 8:57now this philosophy the philosophy of
- 9:00classical liberalism largely developed
- 9:02in response to mercantilism
- 9:05now let's understand what mercantilism
- 9:08actually is right so mercantilism
- 9:10allowed for private ownership of
- 9:12business and economic activity as long
- 9:15as it helped the government right so the
- 9:17good example is the british empire
- 9:20because they were very mercantilist you
- 9:22were allowed to start a business you
- 9:24were allowed to own private property you
- 9:25were allowed to get rich as hell
- 9:27but you had to do so in a way that was
- 9:30good for the government that didn't
- 9:31undermine them you weren't allowed to
- 9:33trade with enemies
- 9:35so you compare the british empire to
- 9:38uh the spanish empire they stopped each
- 9:40other from trading right so there were a
- 9:42lot of business owners that could have
- 9:44like you know maybe they were british
- 9:46and they could have sold a whole bunch
- 9:47of tea to the spaniards right that would
- 9:50have been great for them would have made
- 9:51a lot of money but the british empire
- 9:53was like well that's going to be good
- 9:56for the for the spanish empire so we're
- 9:58not going to allow that
- 10:00and that is
- 10:01you know basically the history of uh
- 10:04of these different colonial empires
- 10:06right there right a bunch of trade wars
- 10:09you know so this modern stuff we see
- 10:10with the us and china and everyone else
- 10:12this is not new this has always been
- 10:14going on right you stop your uh business
- 10:17people from trading with them and it
- 10:19hurts them
- 10:20so even in some ways we're still
- 10:22mercantilistic now
- 10:25that's a topic for another time though
- 10:27so these colonies especially
- 10:29with uh
- 10:31with the british empire specifically
- 10:33they were actually not started by the
- 10:35military but by companies right so there
- 10:39was this
- 10:40private ownership this let's go get rich
- 10:43idea behind the british empire
- 10:45particularly in a lot of others right
- 10:48and one of the things that they did was
- 10:50forced specialization
- 10:52so
- 10:53you think about the 13 colonies here in
- 10:56the us
- 10:58well there were some that were more or
- 11:00less forced
- 11:01to
- 11:02you know like if i think georgia they
- 11:04had to only grow cotton so they were
- 11:06basically forced into specialization now
- 11:09that makes georgia
- 11:11very weak in a in independence so they
- 11:15can't grow their own food right or
- 11:17they're discouraged from growing their
- 11:18own food they are discouraged from doing
- 11:20a whole bunch of things that would make
- 11:22them more self-sufficient more
- 11:24independent but
- 11:26it helps the overall british economy so
- 11:29you've got one colony that does nothing
- 11:31but do cotton okay that's great and then
- 11:34you've got another colony that does
- 11:35nothing but uh make tea
- 11:38all right so we got pennsylvania over
- 11:40here they do nothing but make tea and
- 11:43that overall
- 11:45makes the
- 11:46economy
- 11:47better
- 11:48but again
- 11:49it limits your individual freedom if you
- 11:52live in you know this or that state
- 11:53you're not allowed to start a business
- 11:55on whether or not you want
- 11:57to you know maybe you're passionate
- 11:58about tea making but you live in georgia
- 12:01right
- 12:02you don't want to be a cotton guy so
- 12:04sucks to suck right
- 12:07and again this just hinders economic
- 12:09independence but made the overall empire
- 12:12wealthier
- 12:15so another thing that von hayek is going
- 12:17to be arguing against here is
- 12:20socialism
- 12:21now we need to understand what the heck
- 12:23socialism is so he is arguing against
- 12:26state
- 12:27socialism
- 12:29there are a whole bunch of different uh
- 12:31forms of socialism right i think state
- 12:34socialism is most accurately described
- 12:36as communism right we're going to have
- 12:39collective ownership of everything and
- 12:42it's all going to be through the
- 12:43government and theoretically we all have
- 12:45a say
- 12:46in the government
- 12:48if you guys are fans of history you know
- 12:50how well this system plays out right
- 12:53everyone's like yeah everything we're
- 12:55just gonna all be equal we're all gonna
- 12:57own everything equally and we all have
- 12:59to say in this government it's gonna
- 13:01work out great doesn't play out that way
- 13:03his history has shown time and time
- 13:05again
- 13:07but it's important to understand that
- 13:09there are
- 13:10other branches of socialism that you
- 13:12know they advocate for the social
- 13:13ownership of the means of production so
- 13:16another
- 13:17uh version could be
- 13:19that the people who work the factory
- 13:21should be the owners right so more or
- 13:24less an economy of small business owners
- 13:26right and that's only one other version
- 13:28there are lots of different kinds of
- 13:30socialism but understand that von hayek
- 13:32is attacking
- 13:34state socialism right communism as we
- 13:36understand it today not these other
- 13:38kinds
- 13:40so with all that out of the way i think
- 13:42we can finally start getting into
- 13:44the episode itself some of the meat and
- 13:46potatoes so the government
- 13:49had a lot of control
- 13:51in the 20th century at least compared to
- 13:53previous generations
- 13:55and it was expanding faster than ever
- 13:57before this was partly due to the
- 14:00catastrophes
- 14:01going on uh a lot of it was also from
- 14:06you know the technology expanding right
- 14:08people
- 14:09from the government could now you know
- 14:11mass communicate with everyone right we
- 14:13had the radios and and then even tvs and
- 14:15stuff like that right it was pretty
- 14:17crazy tech
- 14:19but of course this was also the century
- 14:21of fascism and communism which didn't
- 14:24play out so well
- 14:26so communism nationalized industries
- 14:29right basically just turned everything
- 14:31into government property and oh yeah the
- 14:34government's gonna run everything great
- 14:37but when you look at even fascist
- 14:40governments
- 14:41it's not necessarily a centrally planned
- 14:45economy at least in theory but in
- 14:47practice
- 14:48right what happened was the big
- 14:50businesses in germany and italy
- 14:52collaborated with the regimes
- 14:56so
- 14:56let's just understand that there is no
- 14:58consensus on what fascist economics
- 15:01actually is right maybe self-sufficiency
- 15:05but yeah that's about it right there and
- 15:08even then you know who knows you know
- 15:10there are all kinds of different fascist
- 15:12regimes across the world that have
- 15:14existed that to an extent did have free
- 15:16market uh free markets that did have
- 15:19private property and ownership and you
- 15:22could start a business
- 15:23but they were still fascist governments
- 15:25right you didn't have a vote right if
- 15:27the government wanted to kill you and
- 15:29take your stuff they could and there was
- 15:30no recourse
- 15:33but
- 15:34van hayek warns of the quote danger of
- 15:37tyranny that inevitably results from
- 15:39government control of economic
- 15:40decision-making through central planning
- 15:43so this is the big idea here
- 15:46there is an inevitable tyranny that
- 15:49comes from this central planning right
- 15:52whether that's communism where they
- 15:54nationalize everything or even with
- 15:57germany and italy where they more or
- 15:59less partner up with big business
- 16:02right where that where the big companies
- 16:05more or less entrenched in the
- 16:06government itself
- 16:09and his big fear is that it was coming
- 16:12to us it was coming to the u.s it was
- 16:15coming to the uk and yeah and then we're
- 16:17going to be dictatorships too
- 16:20so he saw in practice these bastions of
- 16:22freedom abandoning freedom as well
- 16:25von hayek noted western nations quote
- 16:27progressively abandon that freedom in
- 16:29economic affairs without which personal
- 16:32and political freedom has never existed
- 16:35in the past
- 16:36so we are really free right now
- 16:38don't mess this up don't go back to
- 16:41serfdom because that's essentially what
- 16:42these other people are doing
- 16:45and part of the reason that he had this
- 16:48fear was because the us and the uk had
- 16:50adopted some elements of central
- 16:52planning in the 1900s right ideas that
- 16:55you could call
- 16:56socialism
- 16:57right creeping socialism right threat
- 17:00scare
- 17:01um
- 17:02one example was fdr's new deal
- 17:04right so
- 17:06um
- 17:07you know you can have different opinions
- 17:08on that uh a lot of people largely do
- 17:11view it as a positive i actually live in
- 17:13tennessee and if it had not been for the
- 17:15new deal we would still be getting
- 17:17flooded to this day so tennesseans view
- 17:20the new deal particularly positively but
- 17:23again there were elements of socialism
- 17:26there were elements of you know a lot of
- 17:28government spending and having more and
- 17:31more influence on the economy
- 17:34now there was a common justification by
- 17:38fdr and people like him and they
- 17:40justified it by saying that giving
- 17:42people a little bit of socialism was
- 17:45going to stop them
- 17:46from asking for a lot
- 17:48so
- 17:49you know people on the far left right
- 17:51socialists communists whatever the
- 17:54reason
- 17:55that they are so angry and embittered is
- 17:57you know they've got these legitimate
- 17:58grievances so let's let's acknowledge
- 18:01some some of them let's you know give
- 18:03people some government benefits and
- 18:05whatnot right and that's kind of the way
- 18:08it went down
- 18:10but hayek believed that these were steps
- 18:13toward a centrally planned economy and
- 18:16again this inevitably leads to tyranny
- 18:19inevitably leads to you know having your
- 18:22own stalin or your own hitler or
- 18:24whatever right
- 18:27an economy that more or less resembled
- 18:29feudal europe right so you think about
- 18:33these
- 18:34statist religions right communism and
- 18:36fascism
- 18:38their economies were more or less
- 18:40stagnant right more or less
- 18:42um
- 18:43and it was extremely unequal
- 18:46right p you know especially in the
- 18:48communist regime it was like stalin was
- 18:51living like a king everyone else kind of
- 18:53lived like
- 18:55so it was just kind of a rough system
- 18:57and in many ways it is just kind of a
- 19:00modern version of serfdom
- 19:03so hayek believed that central planning
- 19:05inevitably leads to totalitarianism
- 19:08because it requires quote the will of a
- 19:11small minority be imposed upon the
- 19:14people
- 19:15and this is really the big idea behind
- 19:18his argument here
- 19:20the will of a small minority being
- 19:22thrusted upon millions and millions upon
- 19:25p of people right that's that is the
- 19:27reason that feudal europe sucked that is
- 19:30the reason that the serfs were you know
- 19:32more or less slaves and had to suffer
- 19:33all day and you know be born into
- 19:35slavery again oh your kids are slaves
- 19:37too like it sucked
- 19:39and what made it so bad
- 19:41is
- 19:43an idea that is present also
- 19:45in communism and fascism right the
- 19:48government says we're going to do things
- 19:49this way and well
- 19:51that's how we're going to have to do
- 19:53that
- 19:54right and even if it didn't
- 19:56uh
- 19:57even if it wasn't bad to begin with like
- 20:00let's say you start out with good
- 20:01intentions inevitably that small
- 20:03minority of people will go bad right
- 20:07let's understand
- 20:08uh absolute power corrupts absolutely
- 20:12so even if you have like one or two good
- 20:14kings
- 20:15right historically you look at monarchy
- 20:17right there were some good kings like
- 20:20that's a fact but sooner or later you
- 20:23get a bad one
- 20:24you get a bad one and it kind of cancels
- 20:26out any of the good that a good king
- 20:28could have done
- 20:30von hayek also argued that
- 20:32this reduced individual liberty because
- 20:35quote the individual would more than
- 20:37ever become a mere means to be used by
- 20:40the authority in the service of such
- 20:41abstractions as the social welfare or
- 20:44the good of the community
- 20:48so we more or less
- 20:49become cogs
- 20:51in a machine
- 20:52we are reduced
- 20:54to
- 20:55something that the government can use as
- 20:57a tool
- 20:58right and when you look at the way
- 21:00that these governments treated their
- 21:01people that is more or less how it
- 21:03played out
- 21:04uh joseph stalin did not worry about the
- 21:09soldiers in the red army they were tools
- 21:12there were some they were something that
- 21:14you know what we're gonna throw as many
- 21:16people as we can at those germans
- 21:19and they're yeah they're gonna die but
- 21:21you know we've got more people than
- 21:22they've got bullets and that's how he
- 21:24won the war and in practice that is
- 21:26exactly how it played out same with the
- 21:28fascist governments right their people
- 21:31were expendable they were a means to an
- 21:34end
- 21:35and what happens is your life becomes
- 21:37expendable to the government you are
- 21:39just a tool for them
- 21:40nothing more
- 21:42nothing less
- 21:43so he draws a stark comparison between
- 21:45democracy and socialism and he writes
- 21:47quote democracy and socialism have
- 21:50nothing in common but one word equality
- 21:52but notice the difference while
- 21:54democracy seeks equality and liberty
- 21:57socialism seeks equality in restraint
- 22:00and servitude
- 22:02so the socialist regimes
- 22:04they want everyone equally
- 22:07miserable
- 22:08right you got to think democratic
- 22:10governments right the u.s and the uk
- 22:13we want equality before the law not
- 22:16economic equality we don't want everyone
- 22:18to be equal but we want we want the
- 22:21government the laws the police system
- 22:23the justice system to treat everyone the
- 22:25same
- 22:26if you're rich you're gonna go to prison
- 22:28for killing a kid if you're poor you're
- 22:30gonna go to prison for killing a kid
- 22:32that's the way it should work but you
- 22:34should be allowed to be poor or be rich
- 22:36based on your own merits your
- 22:37relationship to the free market right
- 22:40von hayek does a really good job of
- 22:42expanding on this idea here that the
- 22:44idea that central planning always leads
- 22:47to violence that it's necessarily and
- 22:49inevitably going to happen and he writes
- 22:52quote
- 22:52while the last resort of a competitive
- 22:54economy is the bailiff the ultimate
- 22:56sanction of a planned economy is the
- 22:58hangman
- 23:00so in our competitive free market
- 23:03democratic governments right
- 23:05we
- 23:06have courts we can settle our
- 23:08disagreements like settle civilized
- 23:11people
- 23:12but in the socialist
- 23:14way of doing things well there's no room
- 23:17for disagreement
- 23:18if you disagree with what joseph stalin
- 23:20is doing he's going to kill you that's
- 23:23it there's there's no room for argument
- 23:25right
- 23:26and um
- 23:28so it kind of gets at this idea that
- 23:30violence is the only way
- 23:32of resolving conflict because every
- 23:34every society is going to have some kind
- 23:36of conflict right people are going to
- 23:38disagree people are going to hate each
- 23:39other and they're going to fight if they
- 23:41don't have a court
- 23:43to settle their disputes
- 23:46and if reality and history has shown us
- 23:50anything it's that this was worse than
- 23:53van gaal could have possibly known
- 23:55because you know he's living through
- 23:56this
- 23:57not everyone knew about what was going
- 23:58on in the soviet union and whatnot but
- 24:01you look at something like the moscow
- 24:03show trials
- 24:04it was a pretty rough time if you
- 24:07disagreed with the government or you
- 24:08know the government was even a little
- 24:10suspicious of you they were going to get
- 24:12you
- 24:13and they were going to make a public
- 24:14spectacle of you and you were they were
- 24:16going to psychologically torture you and
- 24:18force you to commit to crimes that you
- 24:20couldn't even have committed right some
- 24:22pretty crazy stuff so it was worse than
- 24:24von hayek even realized
- 24:27but he also argued against his other
- 24:30idea
- 24:31that fascism is not a capitalist
- 24:34response to socialism
- 24:37so let's understand let's start from
- 24:39point a so feudalism turned into
- 24:41mercantilism which turned into
- 24:43capitalism
- 24:45now capitalism had its flaws right early
- 24:47on right workers rights were really bad
- 24:50you know child labor
- 24:52people could make food and it could be
- 24:55basically poison they could take a
- 24:57in the in the soup
- 24:59and that was you know like you couldn't
- 25:00do anything about it right so we had we
- 25:02had to improve upon that
- 25:04um and the socialists were some of the
- 25:06early people to point out
- 25:08a lot of the flaws in capitalism
- 25:11and many marxists particularly they
- 25:14believe that fascism is capitalism's
- 25:17natural response to socialism this is a
- 25:20very prevalent idea among leftists and
- 25:23socialists even today and it goes back
- 25:25to this time period
- 25:28and
- 25:29there is a possibly false quote from
- 25:31benito mussolini there's no proof
- 25:34that he actually wrote this but i think
- 25:36because of its popularity and
- 25:39how much it does encapsulate a lot of
- 25:41his
- 25:42ideology i think it is worth
- 25:45acknowledging so this false quote goes
- 25:47like this quote
- 25:49fascism should more properly be called
- 25:51corporatism since it is the merger of
- 25:54state and corporate power
- 25:57and again you look at what went down in
- 26:00nazi germany in fascist italy big
- 26:02government big business they got in the
- 26:04cahoots
- 26:05that is how it happened
- 26:08and you know again mussolini probably
- 26:10did not say this right it has not been
- 26:12verified historically but i think it
- 26:14encapsulates
- 26:15the idea very well
- 26:18so
- 26:20that is kind of why people especially
- 26:22like the marxists right marxist
- 26:24socialist they believed that
- 26:26capitalism is just
- 26:28you know it doesn't want to give in to
- 26:30the socialist demands so what does it do
- 26:33it goes to
- 26:34fascism where the big governments
- 26:37partner with the big business and
- 26:39they're going to crush
- 26:40socialism right which is also why
- 26:44you know there were a lot of big
- 26:45industrialists that were bodybuddy with
- 26:47the nazi regime so let's just
- 26:49acknowledge that some of that did come
- 26:52true but
- 26:54uh let's also acknowledge von hayek's
- 26:57point and he would say something to the
- 26:58effect of well you look at the central
- 27:01planning in the soviet union you look at
- 27:03the central planning more or less going
- 27:05on in these fascist governments
- 27:07right there's a lot more similarities
- 27:10between
- 27:11socialism or communism and fascism than
- 27:14there is between fascism and capitalism
- 27:16right
- 27:17so that's more or less his rebuttal on
- 27:19the whole thing but let's also have a
- 27:22little disclaimer at the end here
- 27:24because von hayek you can interpret some
- 27:27of these
- 27:28ideas in a certain way you can you know
- 27:30call him a radical free market
- 27:32individualist or whatever else but he
- 27:34does not think that any government
- 27:36involvement is bad
- 27:38in fact that uh there's this common
- 27:40perception today that socialism is when
- 27:42the government does stuff right and
- 27:45honestly guys i lean right myself right
- 27:47i am
- 27:48fairly conservative in a lot of my views
- 27:51um
- 27:52but you know the idea that socialism is
- 27:54when the government does anything
- 27:56is kind of flawed right the government
- 27:58has to do some stuff and he acknowledged
- 28:01that the government needs to have some
- 28:03authority over the economy right it
- 28:04needs to protect people from fraud and
- 28:07scams and you know again you think about
- 28:10some of the early stuff that went on
- 28:12with capitalism in its early days right
- 28:14people would make food they would use
- 28:16rotten meat people would get sick
- 28:18right
- 28:19if it were not for
- 28:21you know government laws coming around
- 28:23and changing that you know there was
- 28:26maybe today we would still be eating
- 28:28food and sometimes it makes us sick and
- 28:30die because you know they didn't use
- 28:32clean uh cooking utensils or whatever so
- 28:35von hayek articulated this idea like
- 28:37this quote in no system that could be
- 28:40rationally defended with a state just do
- 28:42nothing so the government does have to
- 28:44do some stuff right
- 28:46and it's not socialism when it happens
- 28:48right it's not socialism if the
- 28:50government
- 28:51does something
- 28:53um
- 28:54you know it and again it still needs to
- 28:56protect against fraud and bad actors and
- 28:58monopolies and right there are ways that
- 29:00your freedom can be limited by
- 29:02corporations right and you know the free
- 29:05market is not the be-all end-all god of
- 29:07everything right it does have some
- 29:09limitations in one in what it can and
- 29:12cannot do
- 29:14and van hayek even believed for a strong
- 29:18safety net writing quote there is no
- 29:20reason why in a society which has
- 29:22reached the general level of wealth ours
- 29:25has the first kind of security should
- 29:27not be guaranteed to all without
- 29:29endangering general freedom that is some
- 29:32minimum of food shelter and clothing
- 29:34sufficient to preserve health
- 29:37and you can view this as you know kind
- 29:40of maybe social welfare maybe some
- 29:42version of universal basic income you
- 29:44can interpret this whatever way you want
- 29:46but he more or less argues that there
- 29:47needs to be a strong
- 29:49safety net for people we don't just let
- 29:52people die
- 29:53because
- 29:54you know they're hungry right we gotta
- 29:56feed people you know and and again
- 29:59that is
- 30:00uh
- 30:02a movement that is not so
- 30:04fond of people that like von hayek so
- 30:08again let's say let's acknowledge he
- 30:10does have some
- 30:11uh ideas here that are typically thought
- 30:14of as left wing or anti-free market or
- 30:16socialist or whatever
- 30:18but
- 30:19he does have these disclaimers he's a
- 30:20very nuanced guy all great thinkers are
- 30:23very nuanced right they don't just
- 30:25worship this for that idea
- 30:28the free market is not the be-all
- 30:29end-all but my friend that is going to
- 30:32be it for the episode thank you so much
- 30:34for watching all the way through make
- 30:36sure to check out the patreon page if
- 30:38you guys want more content or maybe to
- 30:40get a shout out the start of every
- 30:42episode i really appreciate you guys so
- 30:45much
- 30:46this has been michael from history for
- 30:48thinkers i'll see you in the next one
- 30:51peace out
- 30:56[Music]
- 31:16you
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