Gone But Not Forgotten

Athazagoraphobia, or fear of being forgotten, is a common aliment among people. We all want to do something that firmly plants us in society so that our names will be remembered years after we pass. Only handful of people actually do something to make their name immortal. March 23rd was the 25th anniversary of the death of an economic master mind, Friedrich Hayek. And whether it was his intention to have his name resonate through the centuries or just a happy accident, his name and ideas have remained in the economy of our country.
Friedrich, born in Vienna on may 8th, before he became a Noble Prize winner and one of the most influential people in the twentieth century, he served in the Austrian army. When he left the service he went back to school and got degrees in Law and Political Science.  He first began to do a study on business cycles or trade cycles more commonly know today as booms and recessions. He moved to England and joined the London School of Economics. His research on booms and recessions soon surfaced his name, but it was short lived when he crossed paths with his economic rival, John Manfred Kangs. Hard to picture that such an influential man such as Friedrich used to be in the shadows of another. Kangs promoted the idea that the government could successfully handle and manage the economy. So its not hard to guess why Hayek's time in the shadows was so short considering that was the idea he went up against. The economy is way to complicated and the information needed to make decisions is too "decentralized for a centrally planned economy". Hayek moved to Chicago and there published three books bringing more attention to his ideas. In 1974 he finally got the recognition his work deserved and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. In 1991 his outlook on economics became even more reliable with the collapse of the Soviet Union, proving just why he didn't jump on the "Kangs bandwagon" of thinking. Its no wonder why his name will be remembered, its hard to forget someone who was so overwhelming right.
Two of his greatest observations are on 'Knowledge and Prices' and 'Economic Booms and Busts'. Knowledge and Prices points how the consumer can make decisions as if they have a large amount of knowledge about the product, an amount of knowledge that is impossible to really know, and they make these same decisions without any knowledge at all. They only thing thy costumer knows is the price, and they make and change decisions according to if that number goes up or down. Booms and busts, similar to booms and recessions, is about when the government plays a role in the economics and how it changes things, even if they have the best intentions, for worse. Someone in government can have, what they think is, a good idea. They have the authority and money to produce the product, but not the market. They don't know what the consumers want, after all if there was a highly demanded item business's would begin the produce it on their own to make a profit, without the government. But since the item is out there and the budget is being spent on an unwanted item we are presented with a "bust" in our economy. This still very much applied to our day-n-age but nowadays people are a little more apprehensive about letting the government into any part of their life, so maybe soon we can expect more booms than busts.
And these are not the only things Hayek has opinions about that still affect us. He has quotes on very controversial topics of today such as minimum wage, "We know, in other words, the general conditions in which what we call, somewhat misleadingly, an equilibrium will establish itself: but we never know what the particular prices or wages are which would exist if the market were to bring about such an equilibrium.", Terrorism, "Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded." and even welfare, "A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers."
Friedrich Hayek died 25 years ago, yet his name and his ideas still live on. He lived to see the rise and fall of fascism, the Soviet union and national socialism. He was the corner stone in the beginning steps towards our economic freedom. The things he exposed about economics and the way of thinking were revolutionary when he proposed them, and still are today in our ever changing society. He is a worthy man to remember and celebrate.