Posted on 11/16/2006 9:24:07 PM PST by Torie
Well stated.
I take this as unique to Free Republic.
This helps me understand him better.
Thanks
Yes it is.
Wonderful post, Torie.
It was Friedman who in 1962, with the publication of "Capitalism and Freedom," first proposed the abolition of Social Security, not because it was going bankrupt, but because he considered it immoral.
Friedman calls Social Security, created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, a Ponzi game.
Charles Ponzi was the 1920s Boston swindler who collected money from "investors" to whom he paid out large "profits" from the proceeds of later investors. The scheme inevitably collapses when there are not enough new entrants to pay earlier ones.
That Social Security operates on a similar basis is not really in dispute.
The biggest misconception about the program, he argues, is that workers believe it works like insurance, with the government depositing taxes in a trust fund.
"I've always thought it disgraceful that the government should be essentially lying about what it was doing," he said.
He calls himself an innate optimist, despite the unpopularity of many of his ideas.
When he moved to San Francisco in the 1970s, the city was debating rent control, he recalled. So he wrote a letter to The Chronicle saying, "Anybody who has examined the evidence about the effects of rent control, and still votes for it, is either a knave or a fool."
What happened? "They immediately passed it," he laughed.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/05/ING9QD1E5Q1.DTL&sn=156&sc=587
That was a lovely eulogy. Please pass it on to his widow--I'm sure she will appreciate it.
LOL. Milton was totally right about rent control in my opinion, and totally wrong about social security, ponzi scheme that it admittedly is. The guy had a great sense of humor. He was as I said, an accessible man. Thanks for your vignettes. I appreciate the codicil. I hope others offer theirs. This thread should be a tribute to a great man, one of the most influential of the 20th century, and hopefully beyond, and unlike so many others, for the good.
So he was as he seemed to be, truly liberal.
3 Simple words...
FREE TO CHOOSE
(Must Read for those who have not read)
Milton ping for later.
Milton ping for later.
For the gang. I wish I could write better, but I did my best.
Nice piece of work T.
Don't know. I tend to doubt it.
Have you read this ?
He worked at the Treasury Department during WW2, but some one else came up with the idea.
Ping
ZT'L -- abbreviation for a Hebrew phrase meaning, roughly, "may the memoray of the righteous be blessed," placed after the name of a deceased great Rabbi or righteous man.
Yes definitely, and as I said, in the even more elite group, that really made this planet of ours a better place, a more prosperous place, a more just place. Much is left yet to be done.
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