Pathfinder

January 17, 1994

In 1994, back when Bernie Sanders was a fresh-faced 52-year-old congressman from Vermont, the economist Thomas Sowell wrote a cover story for Forbes commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Friedrich A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, published toward the end of World War II with Keynesian economics reigning supreme. Hayek foresaw the catastrophic convulsions communism and central planning would impose on the second half of the 20th century. True equality, Hayek argued, could not be achieved by socialism’s economic utopianism but only through the equal application of the law. As Sowell wrote, “Perhaps the cleverest expression of the distinction between ‘real equality’ and merely ‘formal equality’ was made by Anatole France when he said: ‘The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread.’ ” Echoing Hayek, Sowell warned the road ahead would not be easy to traverse, cautioning against “facile dichotomizing of the political spectrum into left and right,” a message that remains as relevant today as it was 30—or 80—years ago.

SOURCES: A WORLD TOO MUCH WITH US, BY SAUL BELLOW; SHORT STUDIES ON GREAT SUBJECTS, BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE; THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, BY JAMES BOSWELL; THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, BY DANIEL DEFOE; LA DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS, BY HONORÉ DE BALZAC; PROPER STUDIES, BY ALDOUS HUXLEY; ON INEQUALITY, BY HARRY G. FRANKFURT; THE CAPITALIST AND THE ACTIVIST, BY TOM C.W. LIN; THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, BY JONATHAN HAIDT.