In his 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, Austrian economist F.A. Hayek discusses the role that central planning by governments plays in leading to authoritarian dictatorships similar to the ones of Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. This central planning will result in lost liberties for citizens who will inevitably become peasants of the state. He says Marxism and fascism are "necessary outcomes" of socialist tendencies.
Hayek begins the meat of the book by describing the connection between planning and power. There seems to be a much greater amount of power held by a central organizer than in a competitive economy. The ability of unskilled laborers to change their employment is described as having more freedom in a less centrally organized governance. Hayek says that the western world has ignored the connection between central planning and tyranny as seen in Germany, Italy, and Russia. Much of this planning is part of liberalism and collectivism based on how there are common problems that should be solved together.
A part of the "Liberal way of planning" section from the abridged and condensed version of this book that stuck out to me is when Hayek says "The dispute between the modern planners and the liberals is not on whether we ought to employ systematic thinking in planning our affairs. It is a dispute about what is the best way of so doing." These sentences stand out for me because I have witnessed discussions on this on Twitter or other discussion-based websites. It shows the lack of a laissez-faire attitude in some ways of thinking.
A couple of issues with collectivism Hayek sees is the wrong belief that a) collectivism is inevitable and b) that socialism is better at allocating resources. Simple economics shows that government is by nature is inefficient and free-market companies are profit-driven and will thus reduce costs, using resources as efficiently as possible. Later in the book Hayek talks about how workers in a centralized society will end up being seen as a cog in a machine, tools rather than people. Groups unfavored by the planners would be paid less fairly than the favored groups.
The final sections of the book examine the people who become rulers in a centralized society. Those who reach for political office will be those who crave power, rather than those who are the most talented for the office. These power-cravers would utilize propaganda to further their motives and cause damage to open discourse and the spreading of misinformation. Authoritarianism is, in Hayek's mind, a side-by-side of a centralized government because of nationalism and a multitude of factors.
A downfall of the socialist ideals into fascism in both Germany and Italy was the socialist parties refusing to go all-in on their socialist methods. This created a route for the fascists to take over the socialist economy. These fascist states were in fact socialist rather than capitalist. To stay away from another Hitler-esque situation, democratic nations should resist collectivist ideals.
Overall, this book has really opened my eyes to the inner workings of the rise of fascism in the 1930s. This has brought to my mind a quote by Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." This quote has largely been skewed from its original context about the taxing of the Penn family by the Pennsylvania General Legislature. However, I think it can summarize many of Hayek's ideas. He states the fundamental flaws of socialism with the surmountable effects it can wreak.
