re: #657 000G

The charge that Hitler was a leftie is very popular with the right-wing, for obvious reasons. It’s especially popular among those who lean libertarian. You can find that case argued going back to Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom”.

Well, as a hayekian libertarian myself I would certainly agree with the bulk of his argument. Problem is, a lot of people quote him without actually having read anything by him except minequoting.
He was sometimes quoted in the healthcare debate, and yet libertarians and conservatives forgot a whole chapter in the road to serfdom.

Quote:

” Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision.

Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance - where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks - the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong… Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make the provision for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken”.

From Chapter 9.