Friedrich von Hayek postulated, famously, that state planning and the welfare state would lead inexorably down a Road to Serfdom. However, things just didn’t work out the way he imagined.

It is darkly ironic that the political and economic policies Hayek advocated as an antidote to socialism have instead sent western liberal democracies careening down the route he warned against.

I’ve said this before in jest–that neoliberalism combined with neoconservatism is leading to neofeudalism. But watching our erstwhile leaders voluntary embrace of austerity to pay for the sins of the banksters is starting to convince me that maybe its not a joke.