Most Lockeans can skip this post, but for those of you who’ve never read Hayek’s The Road To Serfdom (University of Chicago Press, 1944), you might appreciate the following passage.
It’s new to me as well, as I leaf through the 50th anniversary edition of the classic text. Hayek helps counter the arguments of those who complain when the free-market solution appears less desirable than the government-dictated solution:
Though in the short run the price we have to pay for variety and freedom of choice may sometimes be high, in the long run even material progress will depend on this very variety, because we can never predict from which of the many forms in which a good or service can be provided something better may develop. It cannot, of course, be asserted that the preservation of freedom at the expense of some addition to our present material comfort will thus be rewarded in all instances. But the argument for freedom is precisely that we ought to leave room for the unforeseeable free growth.
In other words, government-planned solutions — even when they provide immediate benefits — lock us into patterns or processes that stifle the creativity and innovation that lead to even greater long-term benefits.
