The Highway to Serfdom

"FEBRUARY 11, 2014 12:00 AM
The Highway to Serfdom
Random thoughts on the passing scene
By Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
It is amazing how many people still fall for the argument that if life is unfair the answer is to turn more money and power over to politicians. Since life has always been unfair for thousands of years and in countries around the world, where does that lead us?

I am so old that I can remember when sex was private. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” applied to everybody.

However fascinated the U.S. Supreme Court may be with the concept of “diversity,” every one of the nine justices has a degree from one of the eight Ivy League institutions, out of the thousands of institutions of higher learning in this country. How diverse is that.

Despite the rhetoric, the goals, or the intentions of the political Left, the world they seek to create is a world where decisions are taken out of the hands of ordinary citizens and transferred to third parties. Obamacare is the latest example of this trend and can now join the long list of the “compassionate” catastrophes of the Left.

It is fascinating to see academics full of indignation over the “exploitation” of low-wage workers by multinational corporations in Third World countries, when it is common on their own academic campuses to have young men get paid nothing at all for risking their health, and sometimes their lives, playing football, which brings in millions of dollars to the college and often gets coaches paid higher salaries than the president of the college or university."...

Totally disagree about that last part. Getting a free college education plus room and board, especially at a private school could add up to more than $100,000 over four years. Compare that to the poor kids who graduate with $100,000 in student loans.

Good article BB and I agree with Fred too. But I would say those millions made from college sports should be used to bring down the costs of tuition for everybody else not getting scholarships.

The overall theme of the article is spot on, the citizen is becoming smaller and less significant... about half the country is more than willing to relinquish their decisions to those who they must assume are smarter and wiser than they. Those of us who don't trust these people who rarely have much experience in the real world just have to keep fighting the sheep and hoping they can somehow wake up.

Rick wrote: [snip] The overall theme of the article is spot on, the citizen is becoming smaller and less significant... about half the country is more than willing to relinquish their decisions to those who they must assume are smarter and wiser than they. [/snip]

Rick, you clearly don't comprehend the benefits of being a member of the collective. Work or don't, you'll still get a bowl of gruel (maybe an extra cockroach on the Glorious Leader's birthday) everyday, a communal housing arrangement where everyone has the same amount of floor to sleep on, and when you get sick or hurt you can wait in line like everyone else for a diagnosis and treatment. Why would anyone not want to live in the Worker's Paradise?