LETTER: The road to serfdom

Nevadans know what happens when government controls a basic resource. The federal government owns 80 percent of this state. Las Vegas cannot grow until Washington auctions BLM land, and every housing debate starts with begging the landlord — the United States — for more acres.

Friedrich Hayek dedicated “The Road to Serfdom” to the “socialists of all parties.” He meant it in 1944, and he wouldn’t change a word.

New York elected a mayor promising city-owned grocery stores, a rent freeze and free buses. Seattle’s new mayor calls herself a democratic socialist. President Donald Trump took a 10 percent government stake in Intel, a “golden share” veto over U.S. Steel and a government cut of Nvidia and AMD chip sales. Different parties, same transaction: decisions belonging to buyers, sellers and shareholders move into a government office.

Nevada plays along, too — $750 million of public money in Allegiant Stadium, $380 million toward an A’s ballpark, each sold as an exception. That is how direction arrives: never as a system, always as an exception with a ribbon-cutting.

Hayek’s argument was that economic and political freedom cannot be cut in half. Economic decisions are about how people live — where they work, what gets built, which businesses may open. Hand those to the state, and the citizen keeps the form of freedom, not the substance. No single measure is serfdom. One land auction, one subsidy, one rent rule, one golden share — each defensible alone, each making the next easier.

The road Hayek mapped has no party lanes. It is freedom against direction — and in Nevada, of all places, we should see the fence line.