The Romance of Socialism in Politics

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The romance of socialism is very much alive in the modern world and at one point, Hayek says we're all socialists now. Most politicians find it very difficult to avoid the temptation to make it better with some legislative solution. One of the most effective ways to argue against doing something about global warming is to say other countries aren't doing as much.

Bryan Caplan of George Mason University and blogger at EconLog talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about two books: Eugene Richter's Pictures of the Socialistic Future and F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. Both books warn against the dangers of socialism. Pictures of a Socialistic Future, published in 1891 is a dystopian novel imagining what life would be like after a socialist revolution. The Road to Serfdom, published in 1944, explores the links between economic freedom and political freedom and the inherent similarities between communism and fascism. Both books look at the German roots of centralized planning and the nature of the people who rise to power when the State is powerful. The conversation includes discussion of the these topics as well as the rule of law and the amount of state control of the economy in Nazi Germany.