Liberty and economics

[whymc]

I read Hayek's Road to Serfdom on the train ride home today.  It was... interesting.  I was initially a very hostile audience, having only ever encountered his ideas at second hand.  I came away from reading his work with a much more positive view of Hayek and his ideas.  The versions of Hayek's thought that I've encountered have been very one-

Comments

[nidea]

I haven't, but I sometimes read Reason Magazine (libertarian), and a lot of the writers there seem to be big fans.

[semerkhet]

Which seems odd, since most of the libertarians I've encountered don't seem to hold with the three points Greg mentioned in his post. Maybe the first one, but certainly not the second and third. Either a) Greg filtered Hayek's views in a way many libertarians would not agree with, b) the libertarians I've met aren't reading Hayek, or c) I'm not asking the right questions of the libertarians I encounter

[kelglitter]

Maybe it's the aspect of Hayek Greg emphasizes where he mentions "the potential for state structures to be suborned by private interests," with which Libertarians resonate.

[semerkhet]

And it's a point I totally agree with, and a problem I don't have an easy solution for. It's the part about providing a social safety net that I don't normally hear from the libertarians I encounter. I agree with certain parts of libertarian philosophy, I just find distasteful the intense selfishness and lack of community spirit in some of the adherents of the doctrine.

[whymc]

This is the version that I was able to download and read: http://www.iea.org.uk/files/upld-publication43pdf?.pdf

It's a condensed version, but I can't believe that the folks who produced it completely botched the job...

This is the quote from that text that most struck me: "There is no reason why, in a society which has reached the general
level of wealth ours has, the first kind of security should not be
guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom; that is:
some minimum of food, shelter and clothing, sufficient to preserve
health. Nor is there any reason why the state should not help
to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing
for those common hazards of life against which few can make
adequate provision."