Friedrich August von Hayek Quote

"There is perhaps no single factor contributing so much to people's frequent reluctance to let the market work as their inability to conceive how some necessary balance, between demand and supply, between exports and imports, or the like, will be brought about without deliberate control. The
conservative feels safe and content only if he is assured that some higher wisdom watches and supervises change, only if he knows that some authority is charged with keeping the change "orderly." "

by:	Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992), Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974
Source:	"Why I Am Not a Conservative," postcript to The Constitution of Liberty [1960] (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972)
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Categories:	Authority, Conservatism, Control, Free Market
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It turns out that Friedrich August von Hayek was wrong about too many things to enumerate.  -- anonymous
-- anonymous
Today's liberals are the ones who will not let the natural laws of economics rule the market. Jimmy Carter's economic policy disaster for one.  -- cal, Lewisville, tx
Enumerate away Mr. anonymous, I would be interested if you have his book and had read it? Perhaps you could read something else called "THE LAW" by another author Frederic Bastiat.  -- Mike, Pleasant Hill
Convulsing within a socialized system, wanting natural laws of economics to apply, when the foundation of economic liberty is excluded for the individual sovereign. If being Coined conservative is believing in a higher power, the application is off point. A socialist conservative, regardless of their denominational affiliation is still a socialist. When will people learn not to oppress the individual for greed sake. This also applies to the secular socialist conservative standing in doubt of natural order. It takes honesty to balance the books !  -- Ronw13, Yachats Or
Nixon instituted wage and price controls, and it was a disaster.  -- jim k, austin tx
If you are familiar with Hayek you will understand that he does not consider conservatives to be true believers or defenders of freedom. I am inclined to agree as their religious ideology trumps republican government. You can credit the conservatives with alcohol and drug prohibition which has resulted in militarizing the police, the loss of privacy and private property, constant surveillance, asset forfeiture, massive black market and organized crime, corruption of government, and on and on. The conservatives are all for banning activities that they believe go against their religion. They are responsible throughout history for the burning of women, as well as sending non-violent drug offenders to jail for decades -- and their consciences are clean. The same can be said for the free market -- while conservatives act like defenders of free markets, they invariably ignore that which keeps the controlled market in place, like our debt-as-money system -- no foreign wars or global hegemony could be waged without such a rigged game. Such ignorance easily explains why the left continues to gain ground even without public support. The left wants to control domestically and the right wants to control internationally -- freedom be damned if it does not support the political power of the right or the left.  -- E Archer, NYC
Conservative(s)? There are at least 2 ends of the socialist stick; on the left is progressive / liberalism and, on the right conservatism. Socialism's entire gambit is one religion over all other religions, no matter the individual socialist's other claimed religious affiliation(s). If Hayek's "higher wisdom" referenced a super corporeal aspect of other religions (outside socialism) that a conservative may claim, such is an off topic distraction that is inaccurate. If by a "higher wisdom" Hayek was referencing a corporeal Illuminati (a controlling third hand - if you will), he would probably be, much more accurate. The law of nature and of nature's God (fiscal law) most apply covers Hayek's here economic subject matter. Hayek's reference to safe and content fits identical the conservative and the liberal.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Elaborate more Mike.  -- Ronw13, Yachats Or

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