The many roads to serfdom

This comment considers the planning/laissez faire debate discussed in the Hayek symposium, and raises three points. The first is that all debates are contextual and Hayek's Road to Serfdom needs to be considered in its contextual setting. The second is that there are many roads to serfdom, not just the one outlined by Hayek, and the Hayek/Lerner debate today would probably focus on a different road than it did in the 1930s. The third is that modern economists' focus on technical issues has in large part removed them from the role that Hayek and other top economists played in their time.