# *The Road to Serfdom*

In 1944, Friedrich Hayek published *The Road to Serfdom*, his now famous warning about how central planning inevitably leads to totalitarianism.

The abridged version of the book can be downloaded for free [here](https://cdn.mises.org/Road%20to%20serfdom.pdf).

There are eighteen mileposts along *The Road to Serfdom* (cf. pp. 72-89):
1. **War forces “national planning”**
(To permit total mobilization of your country’s economy, you gladly surrender many freedoms.)
1. **Many want “planning” to stay …**
(Arguments for a “peace production board” are heard before the war ends.  Wartime “planners” who want to stay in power, encourage the idea.)
1. **The “Planners” promise Utopias …**
(A rosy plan for farmers goes well in rural areas, a plan for industrial workers is popular in cities—and so on.)
1. **but they can’t agree on ONE Utopia**
(With the country now at peace, “win the war” unity is gone; the “planners” nearly come to blows.)
1. **And citizens can’t agree either …**
(When the “planners” finally patch up a temporary plan months later, citizens in turn disagree.  What the farmer likes, the factory worker doesn’t like, and vice versa.)
1. **“Planners” hate to force agreement …**
(Most “national planners” are well-meaning idealists and balk at any use of force.  They hope for some miracle of public agreement as to their patchwork plan.)
1. **They try to “sell” the plan to all …**
(In an unsuccessful effort to educate people to hold uniform views, “planners” establish a giant propaganda machine—*which will be quite handy to an aspiring dictator*.)
1. **The gullible to find agreement …**
(Meanwhile, growing national confusion leads to protest meetings.  The least educated—thrilled and convinced by fiery oratory—form a party.)
1. **Confidence in “planners” fades …**
(The more that the “planners” improvise, the greater the disturbance to normal business.  Everybody suffers.  People now feel—rightly—that “planners” *can’t get things done!* )
1. **The “strong man” is given power …**
(In desperation, “planners” authorize the new party leader to hammer out a plan and force its obedience.  Later, they’ll dispense with him—*or so they think*.)
1. **The party takes over the country …**
(By now, confusion is so great that obedience to the new leader must be obtained at all costs.  Maybe you join the party yourself to aid national unity.)
1. **A *negative* aim welds party unity …**
(Early step of all dictators is to inflame the majority in common cause against some scapegoat minority.)
1. **No one opposed the leader’s plan …**
(It would be suicide; new secret police are ruthless.  Ability to force obedience always becomes the No. 1 virtue in the “planned state.”  Now *all* freedom is gone.)
1. **Your profession is “planned” …**
(The wider job choice promised by now defunct “planners” turns out to be a tragic farce.  “Planners” never have delivered, never will be able to.)
1. **Your wages are “planned” …**
(Divisions of the wage scale must be arbitrary and rigid.  Running a “planned state” from central headquarters is *clumsy, unfair, inefficient*.)
1. **Your thinking is “planned” …**
(In the dictatorship, unintentionally created by the planners, there is no room for difference of opinion.  Posters, radio, press—*all tell you the same lies!* )
1. **Your recreation is “planned” …**
(It is no coincidence that sports and amusements have been carefully “planned” in all regimented nations.)
1. **Your disciplining is “planned” …**
(If you’re fired from your job, it’s apt to be by a firing squad.  What used to be an *error* has now become a *crime* against the state. ***Thus ends the road to serfdom!*** )


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/trostparadox/zYbJPbMc-image.png)