Glenn Beck and Atlas Shrugged and The Road to Serfdom

I saw the 8 June 2010 Glenn Beck show in its rerun slot from 2 to 3 AM this morning.  He was primarily talking about F. A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, but he held up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged on at least three occasions during the show and said he was going to talk more next week about Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and F. A. Hayek and their important roles in the support of Capitalism at the expense of socialism.

The program talked with an economist, Yuri Maltsev, Prof. of Economics, Carthage College, who left the Soviet Union, who had read The Road to Serfdom there in a locked room and upon swearing that he would tell no one he had read it and that he would not talk about it.  The intention was that if a few economists read the book, they might find a way to improve the floundering Soviet economy by stealing a secret or two from a great proponent of Capitalism! 

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. of the Ludwig von Mises Institute was also a guest on the show and summarized what he thought were the main points of The Road to Serfdom.  To summarize what Woods said were Hayek's main three points:

• The worst people rise to the top planning and leadership positions, because all they promise is a lie.
• They are unable to deliver basic goods and services, not even toilet paper, toothpaste, or condoms.
• Everyone must abide by the central planner's priorities, so no one is allowed to live their own life.