July 27 is free-market economist Milton Friedman's birthday: some favorite quotes and short videos

VA Viper ^ | 07/26/2018 | Harpygoddess

[harpygoddess]

Quotations from Friedman, variously attributed:

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.

The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy.

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

[harpygoddess]

The long-term solution to [to high unemployment] is to increase the incentive for ordinary people to save, invest, work, and employ others. We make it costly for employers to employ people, and we subsidize people not to go to work. We have a system that taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

~ Friedman (in U.S. News and World Report, 7 March 1977)

[rjsimmon]

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property.

Disagree with the Great Milton on this. Our Government has 5 primary functions:

1. Establish Justice - Create, maintain, and enforce the rule of Law.
2. Ensure Domestic Tranquility - Prevent the States from engaging in war amongst each other.
3. Provide for the Common Defense - Establish and maintain an Army and Navy.
4. Promote the General Welfare - Create an environment friendly to commerce amongst the various States.
5. Secure the Blessings of Liberty - Maintain our established Republican form of Government (neither Socialism nor Monarchy).

[rlmorel]

My absolute favorite Milton Freidman anecdote:

While traveling by car in China, Professor Milton Friedman spotted scores of road builders moving earth with shovels instead of modern machinery.

When he asked why powerful equipment wasn’t used instead of so many laborers, his host told him it was to keep employment high in the construction industry. If they used tractors or modern road building equipment, fewer people would have jobs was his host’s logic.

“Then instead of shovels, why don’t you give them spoons and create even more jobs?” Friedman inquired.

[rjsimmon]

Absolutely adore MF. I have watched hours of his lectures. Wish I would have seen them during my undergraduate days.

[FatherofFive]

Absolutely adore MF. I have watched hours of his lectures. Wish I would have seen them during my undergraduate days.

I went to college when all the professors weren't socialists/communists. Capitalism and Freedom was a text book in my Economics class.

[rlmorel]

That is one of the things I really enjoy about the Internet, being able to see real video about people like Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley Jr, and Thomas Sowell.

In watching Friedman, I love his delivery...he reminds me of a wise gnome with a humorous disposition...

[Beowulf9]

Preamble is a mission statement for the Constitution as it replaced the Articles of the Confederation. Democrats seem to claim that the Preamble is the law which grants government absolute power to ignore the Constitution so long as it can claim its intent is to “promote the general welfare”, “establish social justice” or “create a more perfect union” based on Utopian pipe dreams. Constitution itself is the law that creates a more perfect (structurally) of States, etc. Liberals of course can argue that banning guns & cutting military spending promotes the general welfare, ensures domestic tranquility,provides for common defense by police or national guard & helps establish justice & promotes the general welfare, while ignoring the Constitution & Bill of Rights. and let’s remember that the framers BANNED income taxes. It’s hard to claim we have an absolute “right to privacy” when in the actual Constitution as amended the government can force people to fill out invasive tax returns & even audit peoples’ finances....and when it clearly says that government may quarter troops in our homes during war time!