A radio discussion of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom presents his warning that centralized peacetime economic planning can concentrate power and erode individual liberty. Through staged arguments about business rules, job choice, competition, government authority and wartime regimentation, Hayek distinguishes temporary controls accepted for war from permanent controls adopted for security. He also rejects monopoly and special privilege as distortions of free enterprise. The program closes by arguing that political and economic freedom both require vigilance and that competition should be made fairer rather than replaced by central direction.
This Words at War broadcast aired on May 15, 1945. NBC Radio Network carried the broadcast. Other credited names include Garnet Garrison as director and Jack Wilson as radio adaptor.
The surviving recording runs about 30 minutes.
This version dramatizes The Road to Serfdom. Friedrich Hayek is credited as author and Jack Wilson adapted it for radio.
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