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The Road To Serfdom, In Cartoons
For everyone (and on this site we hope this is everyone) who has read Hayek's Road to Serfdom before, feel free to "reread" it for the cartoons. For everyone else: read it now. Feel free to stop when it becomes familiar. Courtesy of mises.org
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"I kept on repeating that central planning always leads to failure."
You didn't get the job because all corporations are miniature versions of centrally planned despotic regimes. No potential employer wants to hear that you think they are doomed to failure. Even though of course they are.
A bit of a simplification. Also, the experiences of 1910-1945 while important to recall were probably an aberration born of a few hundred years of raging industrialization and the enabled imperialism. We won't be crossing those frontiers again.
Be wary of fighting the last war. It's human nature of course to fear what was most recently fearful. That's a good instinct to have; the last thing that tried to kill you will probably still be lurking around in the shadows later to try again. But that "thing" used to be a hungry jungle cat, so naturally it would hang around. But these modern industrialized monsters -- not so much. I'd be a lot less worried about the rise of a new Hitler or Stalin or Mao and more worried about the penetration of ruthless drug gangs into local politics. Or along the same lines, global conglomerates at the federal level.
The famous M/IC is always a good one to watch. And Mon$anto and friends. Those fuckers are just waaaaay too scary for my comfort.
I think the best admonition is to stay on top of your game. Pay attention. Hear what is said and notice also what was not said. Watch for deeds that back up promises to act, or the opposite being unexpected deeds that do not comport with promises.
These are all the elements of maintaining a reactive freedom in a maze of propaganda, lies, misdirection and ancient greed that have typified the most recent 8,000 years of humans fucking with each other.
The currently variant has been a shockingly profound and absolutely en toto failure.
"Who'd we piss off this time?"
"Everyone but the Jews."
"Man...we really are phucked this time."
This is about the GOP and Democrats, right?
Naaa, couldn't be BOTH. They are, like, totally different.
One likes small-limited Big-Gov, the other like big-unlimited Big-Gov.
Seriously overused cliched even, but I wish I could upvote your post and make everyone read it, I will have to settle for dissemination. Thanks.
Error 1453.
"Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance – where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks – the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points of detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to super-cede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineffective. But there is no incompatability in principle between the state’s providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom."
Guess who said this?
Salma Hayek?
HA! Too funny.
Ish Kabibble
Spuds McKenzie
Smarty Jones
...my guesses
I believe you just did. Now where is my prize......?
JFK.
I haven't but I will read it now. I hope it doesn't piss me off like confessions of an economic hitman.
How ironic that it was reproduced from a booklet published by General Motors in Detroit.
It was perhaps inevitable that they would become the very thing they feared.
Change a few definitions -- and you are there.
Yes, how things change. GM is now considered Government Motors. Atlas has Shrugged.
The road to serfdom, indeed, tis the merkan way...
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno
"One for all, all for one"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unus_pro_omnibus,_omnes_pro_uno
Like, total bogus, dudes. No way anything like that would happen here. That's why we have democracy, so stuff like this can't happen. Besides, WW2 was a long time ago, and we won! Are there ANY signs of "planning" since WW2?
Oh, there is a plan, just not one they would like to talk a lot about. What they do do is tell us what the fuck to do, where, and when. There is no component left that is unguided by government's hand...and yet it is still not enough. Even when people who think they are free, living in what they call a democracy, vote, that vote can be thrown out by an unelected, political appointee who would take it upon themselves to deem it unconstitutional in the newly re-interpreted constitution.
The whole point of serfdom is conscription, the loss of individual freedom, ordained from those holding our "debt". AS we no longer own America, America owning us, the debts it incurs through deficit spending are encumbering, but the leaden lid on our tomb is the growing entitlements they have promised that no amount of labor will ever satisfy.
uhhh...like, ..ya..
I do recall the American salute to our flag.Here is photo abt 1942 in the classroom, before it was changed to holding right hand over heart, which all you young folks think was always ths way.
Pledge allegiance 1942
http://www.theautomaticearth.com/debt-rattle-10-2014-they-snuck-in-eurobonds-through-the-backdoor/
I can't imagine saluting a flag.
Countries are just fictions to divide up the livestock into manageable sized groups who can be played off against each other for the benefit of the psychopaths who, unfortunately, run the planet.
We don't salute the flag.
We pledge allegiance to it.
Much more bizarre than merely saluting it. Crazy stupid.
I'm a likable guy, what can i say.
succinct.
once this is absolutely, thoroughly realised,
turning your attention to the things that matter - including those around you that you cherish - is the only sane act.
"Countries are just fictions to divide up the livestock into manageable sized groups..." disagree. this might be true for some countries, yet it's false for many others
several examples exists for countries that have a unique language, a unique culture and a unique sense of "belonging together"
Portugal. Thailand. Germany. France. Italy. Poland. Bulgaria. Romania. Japan. Russia. Greece. Israel. Turkey...
and most countries were formed because of external pressure
yes. all this does not apply for the US. nevertheless, I can't but reject the universality of your statement
"several examples exists for countries that have a unique language, a unique culture and a unique sense of "belonging together"
Portugal. Thailand. Germany. France. Italy. Poland. Bulgaria. Romania. Japan. Russia. Greece. Israel. Turkey..."
Really? Caucasian Euro Yids transported into the midst of real Semites circa 1948, drawing boundaries on a piece of paper and then naming it after a story from the Old Testament(in the OT story, a land which was stolen from the get-go from it's inhabitants at that time by killing every living breathing thing at the supposed command of some psychotic off planet 'God' entity who may have been created by the same people who wrote the OT) isn't a fiction?
Ok, whatever. Neo-Israel...what's the common unique langage, Yiddish, Hebrew, English, Aramic??
Why don't all the rest of us build a big ass wall to protect our "unique culture?" What's good for the goose...
disenchanted, what is your point? the statement to which I answered is one of those "oh, if you stop believing in countries, they will disappear"
mine is that there are unique cultures that do foster a sense of belonging together, even under the onslaught of globalization and Anglo-American "meta-culture"
in short: there are exceptions, glaring ones
----
in fact, I could argue the point that many "anti-state" proponents are... "globalists", in their net effect of world politics. for many nationalists, the fight is between the classical, traditional nation-state and globalization, one of those arguments of the kind "if you are not for us, you are against us"
My point is that neo-Israel is certainly a fiction, you shouldn't have included it with your other examples.
But maybe that's just me... ;)
btw I'm sort of a fan of "regionalism"
yet if you go to Israel, you'll find a country that practically reinvented it's language and culture. a powerful sign that nations are alive and kicking
fiction? I'd call it belief. you might argue that it's "all in the head", ergo "not real", yet it's impact on reality is quite strong
Falsely created realities are a bitch, aren't they?
I'm learning that the "United States of America" fits into that category as well.
This land mass should probably be at least 2 separate countries, if not more. Along the lines of the regionalism I mentioned above.
perhaps, not for me to tell. yet in europe we have found that globalization is not kind towards "the small". the economic region we are trying to have has the size of currently 28 (or 18, if you count only the eurozone) countries
why? because the US, China (and arguably even Russia) are big players, capable of pushing very hard
Singapore is probably the polar opposite, a city-state that rides the waves of globalizations without resisting them, as they come
and yet we too have regionalism in the way you mean it. in fact, many of the smaller regions going towards independence see the EU as the proper "outer border" so that they can get free of their own national unions. this applies to quite distinct cultures, again: Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders, etc.
I highly doubt those smaller regions will ever see true independence as long as the EU exists.
They're exchanging one 'bad boss' for another IMO.
re: US as a "big player"
Entirely too big for it's britches. Dictating(or attempting to) the rest of the world while things go to shit right here at home. The height of hubris...again IMHO. The world and ourselves would be better off if we were several smaller countries.
My problem with "globalism" is if that means one central govt for the entire world. When I can see clearly that one central govt just for the land mass involving the United States isn't working out. You want me to believe that it's going to work for the entire world? Right!
Connecticut Yankees. Nobody from the South would be much surprised.
The photo is cropped. It could be young American Bund kids at a summer camp which were popular in the North.
The American Bund was gone by WW2, so if the photo is circa 1942, I would be wrong.
#6 ‘Planners’ hate to force agreement… Most ‘national planners’ are well-meaning idealists, balk at any use of force. They hope for some miracle of public agreement as to their patchwork plan.
This is hopelessly out-of-date. The process has been well-studied over the years since this was written and the psychopaths and control frauds who have co-opted this process are, well... psychopaths/control frauds. They are not well-meaning idealists, although they may balk at the use of force IFF it suits their ends. Otherwise, they don't care how many lives are destroyed. They EXPLOIT the lack of public agreement as to their patchwork plan.
I disagree with the hopelessly out of date reference.
Human nature hasn't changed, neither have planners. For specific things like the Hoover dam and edifices of that nature, planning is good, but what is happening today it holds the same truths as back then.
I see it with local, state and federal governments and large corporations. One day, it will be too much for many to handle.
an oldie but goodie, book is better, along with Rothbard.
The hundreds of millions of privately owned guns that didn't exist in these previous facist police states is the 800-pound gorilla in the global room.
If the largest army on Earth (armed Americans) speaks up, peeople are gonna listen!
the propaganda
became familiar:
"It is no coincidence
that SPORTS
and AMUSEMENTS
have been carefully planned
in all regimented nations"
ENJOY KICKING YOUR BALLS IN BRAZIL...
PLANNERS
while we wait for
JUNTOS! POR OUTRO FUTURO!!!
I approve of this book.
You would.
The 'Printed Book' was given to every GI during WWII! If they chose to read it or not, was up to their discretion.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist still had his original copy at his home when he died!
The elitist goal is to stamp out the notion of Natural Law and reestablish the doctrine of Royalty.
I have given up trying to talk to most people I meet anymore, relatives have all bought into the golden calf of fiat permanently blinding them to reality, some in the herd senses danger but are not honest enough to recognize the truth nor the danger that truth represents.
..The level of normality bias has never been higher..
I hear you
You bet. Yawns, eye-rolls. In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. Commonly.
In a group two nights ago, I mentioned Holder's new Domestic Terrorism Taskforce and the purported reason for it being that domestic terrorists can be much more dangerous than Al Queda. The nice lady next to me said, "Yes, that's what we need!"
It is an interesting observation. In my evolution to libertarianism I have realized how most all of us have been conditioned to accept the idea that our purpose in life is to ruled...that this is the natural order of things and all of history. It is rare that there is an argument about whether or not government should do something. The arugment is just what should be done. This is where your nice old lady comes in. Problem: State says terrorists are everywhere and will going Boko Haram on us at the first opportunity. Solution: an omnipresent, benificent security state with enough information (think NSA) to become omniscient.
Average citizen: "Yes, they shoud do something about that like the nice man in the suit on TV says. Now, who is winning American Idol?"
The solution is to exclude the subhumans of our species from the civilization of the humans.
It is completely insane to let them have access to the product of those who are civilized.
Danger Will Robinson
If you carry out your plan, you would be at the top of your own hit list
You must be one of the "good people" who likes to control other people and steal from them.
Please go back to the animal world where you are missed.
duplicate entry
And then you gave her the MacGruber Throat Rip, right?
Worst of the Hope/Crosby "Road" movies....
They'll break my fucking golf clubs? Holy shit we need to stop this insanity NOW!
That beach front land called Pebble Beach could be put to better use housing the homeless. Ands all those pesticides used to keep the grass green are killing us. Grown men chasing a ball. what a waste of a good walk. John Daly lost 55 million dollars in casinos. That's how stupid golf is.
Yep, golf is stupid, but replying to you is even stupider. I guess I will never learn.
That was my inner "planner" commenting.
golf courses are ultra toxic, but so are baseball and football fields. i finally gave up on the lawn, it requires too much chemical fertlizer, and crabgrass preventitives, if you apply that stuff at the wrong time it just washes off and you have to do it again, meanwhile the residue goes into the drains and the groundwater. the leeching of ferilizer and chemicals into the washshed is a major problem. agribusiness is destroying the ecology faster than carbon burning.
i dont think they'll break phil mickelsons golf clubs, but then ms went to jail for something similar, she didnt play golf
I usually like ZH posts. Unfortunately, this one seems to paint The State in a bad light. God, I hope The State's sarcasm detection algorithms aren't functioning yet.
Boys, I'm head'n to the Big Rock Candy Mountains!
And for everyone on this site that has watched Hayek vs. Keynes (and on this site Tyler would hope it is everyone) ... Feel free to enjoy the 2 rap anthem classics once again and this time sing along! Thanks of course to Econ Stories.
"Say it loud and say it proud.. We're all Keynesians now!"
Fear the Boom and Bust.
http://youtu.be/d0nERTFo-Sk
Fight of the Century - Hayek vs. Keynes
http://youtu.be/GTQnarzmTOc
I drink expired milk.
I matters more where you drink/suck it from. If it's not a cow, its sorely expired.
Good article Tyler, but warning is too late - We are there.
Don't be so sure, call Snowden and chat with him.
More unequal from orbit .
Well, at least they got rid of golf in fig. 17 -so much useful farmland gone to waste for the sake of hitting a ball into a hole.
Ho Hum, same old Boomer generation "Blame the Fascist" for Marxist/KleptoCapitalist fuck ups.
Your Kenyan Negro US POTUS clown has become the old cartoon figurehead.
No manual breast feeding reform manual has been distributed in Saudi Arabia.
This article is unacceptable on ZH. What will comarade Putin and his 23 trolls say? He may even cut financing to ZH because of this article.
While Russia is working diligently on step #12, Stonng leader (step 10) and Party taking over the control (step 11) successfully completed as well as all previous steps.
USA sucks, they are only trying to complete steps #1 and #2 - loosers!!!
North Koria already won!!!
Funny you should say that. I read those cartoons as United States of America, all the way through.
Russia has been there, done that.
Troll On
Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they
have rebelled they cannot become conscious. GO 1984
Notice the poor bastard in the last photo doesn't have a gun.
They left out the part where they take the guns....
yeah this all came about from the need to bust the labor unions which were rising in this country but had no control. w2 meant you couldn't change jobs, you were on ration cards, you were effectively wards and servants of the state. the labor unions were dead, from that day forward. i know the stories my mom tells them. now government motors is under fire for the ignition switch problem, which happened during obamas bailout, gee do you think he might have taken an interest? before he saved them using taxpayer money?
I think it is cool that Hayek was in favor of a Universal Healthcare system and was in favor of providing assistance to the poor. (Both are true).
no 14 if you're a plumber you can go to work in the white house
Literally, one the top five most frightening books that I ever read.
American History circa 2016.
Your overlords will be robotic.
Cleaning the Sydney Harbour Bridge used to be a dangerous, dirty and laborious job. As soon as a team of workers, operating a sandblaster, reached one end of the iconic structure they had to start again to keep 485,000 square metres of steel pristine.
Now two robots called Rosie and Sandy, built by SABRE Autonomous Solutions, blast away paint and corrosion all day long without a break. They determine which area needs most attention via a laser scan and move about on rails.
“A sand blaster can slice through flesh. Automating jobs like that is a good thing, it helps improve the quality of human work,” says Roko Tschakarow, head of the Mobile Gripper Systems Division at Schunk, which supplies the lightweight robot arm for the Sydney robots.
Cows and robots
Give a cow the choice between being milked by a human or a robot and there is no competition: the robot wins every time. A Dutch family-owned business is capitalising on this and has installed about 20,000 milking robots worldwide
Rosie and Sandy are at the forefront of a wave of new autonomous robots that have broken out of the factory and could be coming to your workplace soon.
At the Automatica robot and automation fair in Munich this week the organisers devoted a whole section to so-called “service robots” for the first time.
Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for manufacturing, engineering and automation demonstrated a Care-O-Bot that sweeps office floors and empties waste paper bins. Pal Robotics showed Stockbot, which walks the aisles in a shop or warehouse to check inventory at night.
Oppent’s autonomous vehicles ferry laundry or waste around hospitals, Yaskawa Motoman’s dual arm robot prepares laboratory samples and OC Robotics, a Bristol-based company, supplies snake-arm robots to inspect hazardous or confined spaces such as nuclear power plants and inside aircraft wings.
Compared to the size of the industrial robotics market, service robot applications are still somewhat niche. Robot researchers are also wary of overpromising after several false technological dawns in the past.
FT series
Robots at Work
The FT analyses the growth in the use of robots in the workplace
Still, rapid advances in a range of technologies, including machine vision, tactile sensors and autonomous navigation, make these robots much more useful and, crucially, ensure they avoid collisions with humans.
“Ten years ago it took five minutes for a robot just to recognise the object in front of it was a table,” says Alin Albu-Schaeffer, director of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). “Many aspects of robotics are now reaching a critical mass?.?.?.?service robotics is coming.”
Approximately 95,000 new professional service robots, worth some $17.1bn, are set to be installed for professional use between 2013 and 2015, according to the International Federation of Robotics. That excludes an estimated 22m domestic service robots – the autonomous vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers that are already becoming a familiar sight to consumers.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7d398f90-ec8e-11e3-8963-00144feabdc0.html...
i feel better knowing the humans no longer have to sandblast that bridge.
It's not fair to reduce Tony Blair's new/old Labour Party to a bunch of cartoons ;-)
The Messiah will not be happy:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2647407/Blair-tragic-egomaniac-n...
Step #1
Take back OUR airwaves. Forbid propaganda.
Back in the day after 911, we would rip on the media.
Suspect was found with a competitive bottle of water, lighter, and a copy of The Road To Serfdom in a non Jewish backpack. Nothing has changed. Just new deal makers in Congress.
When I need advice about freedom, I come to epsilon central aka zerohedge
Why do you think "planners" embrace genetical research? As soon as they can, they WILL use it to construct obeient citizens, fully programmable, and disposable.
While Hayek cries