Once a book was written, titled "The Road to Serfdom". The author was Hayek or so. When the Western world was half-way to there in the 70s, that author got a Nobel prize and the West turn around the other direction. To the road of slaveholding and slavery.

Didn't several things change at that time? For example, there was a report of some "Club of Rome", dully questioning some limits of growth. A few decades later, that kind of questioning is exotic or impolite, or held only by ineffectual circles of internet nerds.

Perhaps we just have to prepare for a (managed?!) civilization collapse, trying to create an independent culture in a world of diminishing and limited (by appropriation rights) resources. How much do we need not to play that "best economic system" game?  

Add to that the need to focus on surviving - keeping your job, finding one, facing spiralling healthcare or debt service costs, etc...

This is just running Tyranny OS on Freedom Matrix. This astute technique evolved no less faster than CPUs and PCs.