Hayek on social insurance

Why have so many conservatives forgotten the rational, compassionate foundations upon which they have built their current hateful ideologies?

Nor is there any reason why the state should not help to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision.
—Friedrich Hayek

The Road to Serfdom is an iconic conservative, anti-big-government text, a “passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production”. And yet, the author argues that social insurance is not only acceptable, but a very good idea. Single-payer health insurance is the classic example of “providing for … common hazards of life”.