ABSTRACT

Neo-liberal ideology has indoctrinated many people into believing that socialism must necessarily destroy or radically curtail individual freedom. It is said that socialism sacrifices the individual to the collective, that it concentrates huge amounts of power in the hands of the state and that this is the greatest threat to individual freedom. Central planning is seen as a form of paternalism depriving us of choice since it must always mean the plan of a few imposed on the many. A vital private sector is the only check on state power, and our only choice is between rule by an impersonal market or rule by the arbitrary will of a few individuals.The right to private property is the basis of all individual freedom, and, since “individual freedom” is the most cherished ideal in advanced capitalist societies, socialism, it is claimed by neoliberal ideology, should be dismissed as not worthy of further consideration.At best socialism may offer certain gains in the areas of social justice and equality, but these gains will be too costly, for their cost is precisely the loss of individual freedom.1