The Road to Serfdom: Why Socialism will never work.

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The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek was an interesting read. He explained much of which I already knew about socialism, but he went into depth behind the reasoning of it. This essay did not skim upon the surface of why socialism would never work, and instead delved into the reasoning and gave examples of how it could never work. It’s described as a fallacy, a utopia which we can never attain. In one part of the essay Hayek writes of how whenever man attempts to make heaven on Earth, they tend to introduce the problems of hell. Now I could sit here and just spout back everything Hayek wrote to warn and advise his readers against socialism, but I’m writing this paper to think in a new and creative way than how I thought before. Although I agree with Hayek and see the light in his argument, maybe there were some things he was wrong about. What if it were possible to have a successful socialist government? Now I don’t truly believe this to be possible, but the odds of winning the lottery are significantly out of anyone’s favor yet there are still winners. What if Hayek was wrong, and it is possible to have a socialist society?

How would it work?
Hayek writes that, “[d]emocracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude,” and he is right. For the sake of my thinking, however, I’m still going to try and pick this apart. I feel like a socialist would argue that “they seek equality not by limiting everyone, but by putting everyone on an equal playing field.” This sounds fair to the ear of a child or someone he is easily tempted, but when you look at what their actually saying it’s literally just them acknowledging what Hayek argued. The whole argument of the socialist is to beat around the bush and make it sound prettier than it is. I gained nothing from this that would prove socialism works, so onto the next point. A leader is a significant part of any government. Hayek introduced two parties of leadership, the planners, and the totalitarian the planners introduce who soon takes over. The planners seem like a lost cause of bad politicians, and those are no fun to play with due to the countless possibilities several planners could take a stance upon; the totalitarian, however, is one subject alone. Of course they have underlings, but at the end of the day it is still one person at the head of it all. Hayek argues that only those who lack morals and come from the lower-middle class would likely make it onto this stage, as they are the one who sees the issue their fellow man faces and takes a stance to fix it. I’ll stick with this mindset of a lower-class individual being the one who sees fit to make change, but I’m going to drop the no morals. Perhaps Jesus Christ was reincarnated once more and really took to his political views this time, perhaps he truly cares for the best of his fellow man and wants to see real change for the better. Everyone loves this guy, and he gets elected as the totalitarian. How does this affect the socialist government? For one, I believe it eliminates the need to dumb down the populace and to eliminate free thinking. If we continue down this path though the planners will replace Jesus, resulting in a repeat of the process or a failure of the government. If we continued down this road, it would likely lead to another member of the public being elected the totalitarian, essentially becoming a pseudo-election like what we have here in the United States. This likely wouldn’t work out either, as one member elected might finally just take over and begin their tyrannical rule. Sadly, I believe if I keep looking towards the light in socialism all I will find are ways the system will eventually fail. Perhaps Hayek truly was right.

Where to go now?
With my view disproved (even if it was only after two attempts) I guess I’ll just have to accept the facts for what they are. Socialism just won’t work. We live in a real world, one with guaranteed outcomes and reoccurring themes. In the theoretical world socialism may work, as weird as it may be there, but the real world isn’t perfect, and I cannot force my will onto others. I cannot guarantee everyone will play their part in a society that demands just that of them. If I came to this conclusion after testing a few thoughts of mine, then I believe it could be best to test people on their views to determine if they will truly work or not. What I mean by this is that an experiment should be conducted by a random survey of people. These people should have no relation to each other and should be tasked with forming a socialist government. Then we should see what happens. I believe if we let people view random people from the population try and make a successful “utopia” and fail, they may begin to reconsider their opinions. Simply by showing them the facts behind the theory in real-time would-be evidence enough for most people to reconsider their views on socialism. For the die-hard socialists, I say we conduct the experiment with them too. Nothing but socialists in that group and give them a much longer timespan to keep their socialist government intact, maybe 1-3 year(s). Viewing their experiences, then we should determine if we truly think a socialist government is possible. I know it’s possible to look at previous governments and nations that tried, but the “delusional” still hold to their beliefs, so to disprove them with their own compatriots might prove successful.

Conclusion
Although my argument and research for this paper was vastly different than my last, I believe I’m starting to come around to understanding the concept of this class. I’m expanding the way I think and trying new things, even if these new tactics are dumb in writing. Hayek was right in what he wrote, and I do agree with what he put down. In class I’ll talk more on the actual matters he wrote down and what I do get behind and what confuses me or what I disagree with. For this paper though, I wanted to test (if I can even call them tests) if what he said holds true or not. Hopefully I can hone this writing ability and incorporate it into my papers to come more expertly. At the end of the day though, socialism just won’t work. It would be nice, but the world doesn’t care about what’s nice. Life is hard, and we must accept that and move forward. Sitting and complaining might be easy but it accomplishes nothing, and that only puts us behind in our own lives. Socialism isn’t the way to go.