In "The Road to Serfdom", F. A. Hayek argues that the economic planning defended in some socialist doctrines leads to the same kind of serfdom present in totalitarian states. Based on this, he concludes that the only way to guarantee freedom is to implement economic liberalism. Hayek identifies some of the characteristics found in totalitarian systems, pointing out that socialist states have those very same characteristics. This paper intends to show that the characteristics described by Hayek as typical of the totalitarian systems are very present in the modern day United States. Hence, economic liberalism leads to the same serfdom found in totalitarian systems. Polanyi has shown us that serfdom is not a result of power centralization or economic planning, but of the very act of submitting people's day-to-day life to impersonal systems. We can conclude that there are several possible roads to serfdom, three of which the human race has already trailed: the totalitarian, the communist and the liberalist.
communism; liberalism; totalitarian states; Polanyi; Hayek