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Milton Friedman Quotes - Page 10

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I start ... from a belief in individual freedom and that derives fundamentally from a belief in the limitations of our knowledge, from a belief ... that nobody can be sure that what he believes is right, is really right

I start ... from a belief in individual freedom and that derives fundamentally from a belief in the limitations of our knowledge, from a belief ... that nobody can be sure that what he believes is right, is really right ... I'm an imperfect human being who cannot be certain of anything, so what position ... involved the least intolerance on my part? ... The most attractive position ... is putting individual freedom first.

Milton Friedman
Freedom, Believe, Firsts
Interview with Tibor Machan, Joe Cobb, Ralph Raico, reason.com. December 1974.

It all would have been much better if individuals saved for their own old age.

Milton Friedman
Age, Individual, Saved
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

I think almost every economist would agree that government gets itself in trouble when it tries to interfere with voluntary behavior.

Milton Friedman
Freedom, Thinking, Government

In response to a suggestion that total free trade would end in cheaper foreign products flooding the market and causing unemployment.

Milton Friedman
Suggestions, Unemployment, Ends

[U]nemployment is ... a side effect of the cure for inflation.

Milton Friedman
Investing, Sides, Economics

The most important ways in which I think the Internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for government to collect taxes.

Milton Friedman
Thinking, Government, Issues

Americans know very little about social statistics, but I am not sure that it's important that Americans know about social statistics.

Milton Friedman
Important, Littles, Statistics
Source: www.pbs.org

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He will ask rather 'What can I and my compatriots do through government' to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom?

Milton Friedman
Country, Responsibility, Men
Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.2, University of Chicago Press

Socialism, in the traditional sense, meant government ownership and operation of the means of production. Outside of North Korea and a couple of other spots, no one in the world today would define socialism that way. That will never come back.

Milton Friedman
Couple, Mean, Government
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself ... Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom.

Milton Friedman
Mean, Achievement, Political
Capitalism and Freedom ch. 1 (1962)

Prohibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse - for both the addict and the rest of us.

Milton Friedman
Matter, Anarchy, Prohibition
Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

I think it's a scandal what has been happening in the school system so far as lower income classes. The dropout rates, the illiteracy rate, you know literacy in the United States was a lot higher in 1890 than it is now.

Milton Friedman
School, Thinking, Class
Source: www.pbs.org

By encouraging men to spy and report on one another, by making it in the private interest of large numbers of citizens to evade the controls, and by making actions illegal that are in the public interest, the controls undermine individual morality.

Milton Friedman
Men, Numbers, Spy
Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

The difference between me and people like Murray Rothbard is that, though I want to know what my ideal is, I think I also have to be willing to discuss changes that are less than ideal so long as they point me in that direction.

Milton Friedman
Thinking, Differences, Long
"Best of Both Worlds: An Interview with Milton Friedman". Interview with Brian Doherty, reason.com. June 1, 1995.

In the current world, with the skills needed, dropouts [like no secondary education] are condemned to being members of the underclass. In my view, this is a fault of the American school system, which is a government monopoly.

Milton Friedman
School, Government, Views
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

I cannot disagree with you that having something like 500 economists is extremely unhealthy. As you say, it is not conducive to independent, objective research. You and I know there has been censorship of the material published. Equally important, the location of the economists in the Federal Reserve has had a significant influence on the kind of research they do, biasing that research toward noncontroversial technical papers on method as opposed to substantive papers on policy and results

Milton Friedman
Independent, Political, Important

When you argue for free markets, you are arguing against the trend.

Milton Friedman
Trends, Arguing, Free Market
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Look, for example, at the obvious, immediate, practical example of illegal Mexican immigration. Now, that Mexican immigration, over the border, is a good thing. It's a good thing for the illegal immigrants. It's a good thing for the United States. It's a good thing for the citizens of the country. But, it's only good so long as its illegal....

Milton Friedman
Country, Long, Mexican
"Illegal Immigration: A Feature, Not A Bug, Said Milton Friedman" by Brian Doherty, reason.com. May 11, 2011.

They think that the cure to big government is to have bigger government... the only effective cure is to reduce the scope of government - get government out of the business.

Milton Friedman
Thinking, Government, Scope
Milton Friedman - Big Business, Big Government, www.youtube.com. September 14, 2012.

Rich people are the experimental ground for every new development. The nature of progress is that what begins as a luxury for the rich becomes a necessity for the poor as it's developed and passed on.

Milton Friedman
Luxury, People, Progress
Source: www.foxnews.com

I am a limited-government libertarian.

Milton Friedman
Government, Libertarian, Limited Government

Money is a very powerful thing, which you hardly notice when it goes right, but which can create havoc when it goes wrong.

Milton Friedman
Powerful, Havoc, Very Powerful
Source: www.npr.org

Economics has become increasingly an arcane branch of mathematics rather than dealing with real economic problems.

Milton Friedman
Real, Branches, Problem

A real gold standard is thoroughly consistent with [classical] liberal principles and I, for one, am entirely in favor of measures promoting its development.

Milton Friedman
Real, Gold, Principles

So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no they do not.

Milton Friedman
Responsibility, Law, Answers
Milton Friedman (1975). “There's no such thing as a free lunch”, Open Court Pub Co

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