von Hayek wrote "The Road to Serfdom" as a warning that totalitarianism (whether labelled as fascism or communism) was a threat to liberty. The book is not about taxes, regardless of what Jeffrey Sachs says - read it for yourself. The subsequent history of the 20th and 21st centuries has, I think, proved that von Hayek's warning was prescient.
Not really, but nice revisionism.
In your book "The Road to Serfdom" you said that it is possible to have economic freedom without political freedom but that political freedom will never be possible without economic freedom. Is this not to posit the economy as the most decisive factor in countries' lives? Does this not limit or reduce everything that makes us human to economic value?
It is very simple: a country can have a proper political life only if the economic system allows its people to survive. Not counting, of course, with the ever-growing problem of population growth. Very well, people need to survive. And I am convinced that it is only in the free market, following the competitive market order, that all these people can be kept alive. It is precisely the policies of the left that attempt to impede those economic mechanisms that for me are the only ones that can give us everything we need. In the West, in particular, access by the masses to a certain degree of well-being has been the result of the general rise in a country's wealth, not of so-called "social justice". "Social justice" has rather prevented the elimination of poverty. The interference of the powers that be in the mechanisms of the market has succeeded only in provoking greater injustices in the form of new privileges in favour of particular interests. Let me remind you that democracy needs the broom of strong governments. Unfortunately, democracies are at times allowing governments too much power. This is why I am very careful to distinguish between "limited democracies" and "unlimited democracies". And obviously my choice is for limited democracies.
Who likes dictators? (kinda)
What opinion, in your view, should we have of dictatorships?
Well, I would say that, as long-term institutions, I am totally against dictatorships. But a dictatorship may be a necessary system for a transitional period. At times it is necessary for a country to have, for a time, some form or other of dictatorial power. As you will understand, it is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. My personal impression ? and this is valid for South America - is that in Chile, for example, we will witness a transition from a dictatorial government to a liberal government. And during this transition it may be necessary to maintain certain dictatorial powers, not as something permanent, but as a temporary arrangement.
Taken from: http://www.fahayek.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121
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If the quotes are lost on some (despite their clarity) may I remind you that this interview was done in Chile in 1981. Gee, I wonder what Hayek was doing in Chile in the 1980s...