Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
More from Milton
Here is a quote I think really like from Milton Friedman:
"The essence of human freedom as of a free private market, is freedom of people to make their own decisions so long as they do not prevent anybody else from doing the same thing. That makes clear, I think, why free private markets are so closely related to human freedom. It is the only mechanism that permits a complex interrelated society to be organized from the bottom up rather than the top down. However, it also makes clear why free societies are so rare. Free societies restrain power. They make it very hard for bad people to do harm, but they also make it very hard for good people to do good. Implicitly or explicitly, most opponents of freedom believe that they know what is good for other people better than other people know for themselves, and they want the power to make people do what is really good for them."
One of these days I am going to say something profound like that. Until then, I am afraid you will just get quotes.
"The essence of human freedom as of a free private market, is freedom of people to make their own decisions so long as they do not prevent anybody else from doing the same thing. That makes clear, I think, why free private markets are so closely related to human freedom. It is the only mechanism that permits a complex interrelated society to be organized from the bottom up rather than the top down. However, it also makes clear why free societies are so rare. Free societies restrain power. They make it very hard for bad people to do harm, but they also make it very hard for good people to do good. Implicitly or explicitly, most opponents of freedom believe that they know what is good for other people better than other people know for themselves, and they want the power to make people do what is really good for them."
One of these days I am going to say something profound like that. Until then, I am afraid you will just get quotes.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Milton Friedman
This morning in my History of Economic Thought class we began learning about Milton Friedman. For any of you who actually know who that is, you might be asking, "In a history class?" He died in 2006, and my professor had begun teaching about him while he was still alive, but he has made tremendous contributions to the world of economic thought.
He taught at the University of Chicago, a very conservative school of thought, and was a great arguer. Somebody once said that everyone loves to argue with Milton, as long as he is not there. Anyway, we watched this clip of him arguing for capitalism and free markets, and I loved it. So I am sharing it with all of you. I doubt many of you get involved with these types of discussions, but just in case anyone begins complaining about greed in capitalism, you now an authoritative source to pull from.
He taught at the University of Chicago, a very conservative school of thought, and was a great arguer. Somebody once said that everyone loves to argue with Milton, as long as he is not there. Anyway, we watched this clip of him arguing for capitalism and free markets, and I loved it. So I am sharing it with all of you. I doubt many of you get involved with these types of discussions, but just in case anyone begins complaining about greed in capitalism, you now an authoritative source to pull from.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)