A Little Hayek
Jun 11 2010, 07:21 EDT
Hayek's classic book, The Road to Serfdom has sold out. My copy is currently lent out (I've bought a half dozen copies over the years), so I'll post a paragraph from his later Individualism and Economic Order instead.
To the accepted Christian tradition that man must be free to follow his conscience in moral matters if his actions are to be of any merit, the economists added the further argument that he should be free to make full use of his knowledge and skill, that he must be allowed to be guided by his concern for the particular things of which he knows and for which he cares, if he is to make as great a contribution to the common purposes of society as he is capable of making.He's referring to the Socialist Calculation Problem. Knowledge and particular talent is highly dispersed in society and wishing that it can be centrally marshaled is a fools errand. You wouldn't vote for one guy on your block to spend 20% of everyone's income for them because he obviously doesn't know better than you what you like to eat, what kind of education your kids need, etc. That a Congressman can do this for hundreds of thousands of people or a Senator for millions is complete fantasy.