Democratic socialism is the scenic route to serfdomCNN, Apr 9, 2019, Jeffrey Miron and Ryan Bourne
In his 1944 book "The Road to Serfdom," Nobel prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek argued that socialist economic planning resulted not just in accumulating losses of economic efficiency but "the very destruction of freedom itself."
History was kind to Hayek's worldview. The United Kingdom, Sweden, and India tested socialistic planning without sustained repression. But people in the Soviet Union, Venezuela, Cambodia and Cuba were not so lucky. Natural experiments between socialism and capitalism in East Germany and West Germany, North Korea and South Korea, and Hong Kong and China, bore out the link between economic liberty and personal freedom. Upon reunification, for example, GDP per capita in East Germany was one-third of the West German level, and the latter did not require the East's Stasi or emigration restrictions.
In criticizing socialism as it existed in the 1930s and 1940s, though, Hayek meant a government that owned and operated the means of production, controlled prices, and planned where and how production took place. Economists since have broadly agreed this type of "planned" economy is flawed, albeit recognizing every country has socialistic programs.
In 2019, "socialism" is enjoying something of a revival in American politics. A Gallup Poll last year suggested Democrat voters now think more positively of socialism than capitalism. Sen. Bernie Sanders has self-described as a "democratic socialist" since the 1960s, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/09/opinions/democratic-socialism-is-the-scenic-route-to-serfdom-miron-bourne/index.html
