So time to share some nerdiness? I’m a huge fan of non-fiction. Non-fiction books are ALL I READ. One of my favorite books of all time is The Road to Serfdom by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek (he had great influence on Milton Friedman, perhaps a more recognizable name). And I guess I will also disclose that I am a devoted Libertarian and that I–like many of you dear readers who come from all parties–am pretty disappointed in this year’s possible presidential nominees.

Looking through my old bookmarks, I rediscovered this short comic booklet (first printed in Look magazine in the 50s I believe?) which gives a Reader’s Digest version of The Road to Serfdom. The original text itself is long and a little bit technical, and I think this illustrated booklet comprehensively conveys the thesis–the dangers and consequences of giving economic control to a government–in a concise, easy-to-read way. Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom in 1944 during World War II, so he looked to dictatorships (Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini) as exemplifying cultures on the “road to serfdom.”

But I reread this booklet now, framing it in the context of today’s political atmosphere. I think it’s eerily relevant.

Which stage is the U.S. in now on the road to serfdom?