I'm Not an Anarchist, but I'd Like to See Government Engagement in Anti-Pollution

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The division between formal regulation and as soon as you start hiring people, you start worrying about getting sued is interesting. What it's really done, I think, over the last 20 years, has made it easier for large companies to avoid competition because they can outsource a lot of these costs. Hayek was very worried about competition and was willing to see some government policy and regulation to increase competition if it could do so.

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.