“Be it enough to mention that in 1934 the newly established National Planning Board devoted a good deal of attention to the example of planning provided by these four countries: Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. Ten years later we had of course learned to refer to these same countries as “totalitarian,” had fought a long war with three of them, and were soon to start a “cold war” with the fourth. Yet the contention of this book that the political development in those countries had something to do with their economic policies was then still indignantly rejected by the advocates of planning in this country.”

Excerpt From: F. A. Hayek. “The Road to Serfdom.” University of Chicago Press, 2010-04-06. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/vAe3H.l

HKO

But this conclusion begs he question does planning inevitably lead to totalitarianism, or do cultural and constitutional constraints permit a manageable degree of constraint to some degree of central planning.  The survival of the modern welfare state does provide a challenge even in light of its flaws and failures.

print