John Stossel writes in Increasing Government Power Threatens Freedom that:

Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn’t just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.

F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote “The Road to Serfdom” in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom.   [...]

Hayek meant that governments can’t plan economies without planning people’s lives. After all, an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The scientific-sounding language of President Obama’s economic planning hides the fact that people must shelve their own plans in favor of government’s single plan.

This essay shows both how far along we have travelled down the Road to Serfdom and how close we are to going so far that we can no longer turn around.   I encourage you to read the entire essay and then comment below.

F. A. Hayek · John Stossel · Road to Serfdom · Servile State · Welfare State