This quotation from Friedrich Hayek is emblematic of a ghastly hauteur -- and plain human ignorance -- that flavors much of the discourse coming from the libertarian right in America It is so wholly unsuited to the American idea of itself that I once posted the quote over my monitor, just as a reminder. When you think I'm being a little hard on the right in this blog, it's because of this piece of Hayekery. I'll underline the words that -- in my reading -- reveal much of who he is and where he's coming from.
In the Western world some provision for those threatened by the extremes of indigence or starvation due to circumstances beyond their control has long been accepted as a duty of the community...
Okay ...so far. But then his character, grand assumptions, and peevishness peep through.
The necessity of some such arrangement in an industrial society is unquestioned -- be it only in the interest of those who require protection against acts of desperation on the part of the needy. ...from Constitution of Liberty
That's right, Freddy. Toss 'em a penny or two just to keep 'em from pulling down the gate at the bottom of your driveway.
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Update, 12/6. Paul Krugman has a great piece on Hayek at his blog, a kind of termination of Hayek as a second-rater. Bottom line: I think that's my problem with Hayek. The current conservative embrace of Hayek for political rather than economic reasons only diminishes him further.
Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
So why is his name invoked so much now? Because The Road to Serfdom struck a political chord with the American right, which adopted Hayek as a sort of mascot — and retroactively inflated his role as an economic thinker. Warsh is even crueler about this than I would have been; he compares Hayek (or rather the “Hayek” invented by his admirers) to Rosie Ruiz, who claimed to have won the marathon, but actually took the subway to the finish line. ...
...The Hayek thing is almost entirely about politics rather than economics. Without The Road To Serfdom — and the way that book was used by vested interests to oppose the welfare state — nobody would be talking about his business cycle ideas. ...Paul Krugman