The Biblical Road to Serfdom

David Plotz has been blogging the Bible over at Slate. In a recent entry, he analyzes Joseph from the book of Genesis' economic policies during his years as Pharoah's viceroy. Plotz (possibly with a good dose of facetiousness) blames Joseph's Mao-like behavior as he "abolishes private property, turns freeholders into serfs, and transforms a decentralized farm economy into a command-economy dictatorship" for laying the groundwork for "the Israelites' enslavement in Egypt. Once you create a voracious state apparatus, it must be fed. Is it a surprise that slavery became part of its diet? In a less totalitarian state, perhaps slavery wouldn't have been as necessary or as feasible."

While that account of the origins of Egyptian slavery doesn't hold up as history--but then again, neither does the story of Joseph's viceroyhood in Egypt in general--it is true that the Road to Serfdom is one of the most ancient of roads.