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Milton Friedman Quotes - Page 11

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The fall of the Berlin Wall really demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was a bad system, and what subsequently happened in the Soviet Union, that that system was a failure.

The fall of the Berlin Wall really demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was a bad system, and what subsequently happened in the Soviet Union, that that system was a failure.

Milton Friedman
Wall, Fall, Doubt
Source: www.pbs.org

The fall of the Berlin Wall did more for the progress of freedom than all of the books written by myself or Friedrich Hayek or others.

Milton Friedman
Wall, Book, Fall
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

In a free society, it is hard for 'good' people to do 'good', but that is a small price to pay for making it hard for 'evil' people to do 'evil', especially since one man's good is another's evil

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

Everywhere, and at all times, economic progress has meant far more to the poor than to the rich.

Milton Friedman
Progress, Rich, Economic

As a nation, we have been responsible for the murder of literally hundreds of thousands of people at home and abroad by fighting a war that should never have been started and can be won, if at all, only by converting the United States into a police state.

Milton Friedman
War, Home, Fighting

So long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Milton Friedman
Games, Long, Competition
Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.133, University of Chicago Press

What does it mean to say that government might have a responsibility? Government can't have a responsibility any more than the business can. The only entities which can have responsibilities are people.

Milton Friedman
Mean, Responsibility, Government
Milton Friedman (1975). “There's no such thing as a free lunch”, Open Court Publishing Company

You mustn't judge a politician by talk. You have to judge them by performance.

Milton Friedman
Judging, Politician, Performances
Source: www.foxnews.com

I can spend somebody else's money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else's money on somebody else, I'm not concerned about how much it is, and I'm not concerned about what I get. And that's government.

Milton Friedman
Government
Fox News Interview, May 2004.

The Depression, which started in 1929 was rather mild from 1929 to 1930. And, indeed, in my opinion would have been over in 1931 at the latest had it not been that the Federal Reserve followed a policy which led to bank failures, widespread bank failures, and led to a reduction in the quantity of money.

Milton Friedman
Opinion, Reduction, Federal Reserve
Source: www.pbs.org

People hired by government know who is their benefactor. People who lose their jobs or fail to get them because of the government program do not know that that is the source of their problem. The good effects are visible. The bad effects are invisible. The good effects generate votes. The bad effects generate discontent, which is as likely to be directed at private business as at the government.

Milton Friedman
Jobs, Government, People

There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

Milton Friedman
Government, Program, Government Programs
"Take It To The Limits: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism". Interview with Peter Robinson on "Uncommon Knowledge", www.youtube.com. February 10, 1999.

Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

Milton Friedman
Economics, Economist, Monetary Policy
Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.272, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The major basis for my opposition to marijuana prohibition has not been how badly it's worked, the fact that it's produced much more harm than good - it has been primarily a moral reason: I don't think the state has any more right to tell me what to put into my mouth than it has to tell me what can come out of my mouth.

Milton Friedman
Marijuana, Thinking, Mouths

There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves.

Milton Friedman
Government, Buying, Harm
"Who protects the consumer?". PBS "Free to Choose", episode 7, 1980.

Now here's somebody who wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette. If he's caught, he goes to jail. Now is that moral? Is that proper? I think it's absolutely disgraceful that our government, supposed to be our government, should be in the position of converting people who are not harming others into criminals, of destroying their lives, putting them in jail. That's the issue to me. The economic issue comes in only for explaining why it has those effects. But the economic reasons are not the reasons.

Milton Friedman
Thinking, Marijuana, Jail
"Friedman & Szasz On Liberty and Drugs". Interview with Randy Paige on "America's Drug Forum", www.druglibrary.org. 1991.

The history of mankind is the history of money losing value.

Milton Friedman
Losing, Mankind, Values

Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what we have done at one time or another to produce surpluses of wheat, of sugar, of butter, of many other commodities. Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail.

Milton Friedman
Government, May, Want
Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.237, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

...Only physicians are likely to be regarded as competent to judge the qualifications of potential physicians, so licensing boards in the various states...are typically composed..of physicians,...members of the AMA. The boards, or the state legislatures...give the AMA the power to influence the number of persons admitted to practice (by) lengthy training,...(and) the list of 'approved' schools and hospitals (which) is generally identical with the list issued by the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the AMA.

Milton Friedman
School, Dark, Practice

The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power.

Milton Friedman
People, Important, Needs
Milton Friedman, Kurt R. Leube (1987). “The essence of Friedman”, Hoover Inst Pr

It is my view that what is important is cutting government spending, however spending is financed. A so-called deficit is a disguised and hidden form of taxation. The real burden on the public is what government spends (and mandates others to spend). As I have said repeatedly, I would rather have government spend one trillion dollars with a deficit of a half a trillion than have government spend two trillion dollars with no deficit.

Milton Friedman
Real, Cutting, Government

Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today's disadvantaged to become tomorrow's privileged and, in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.

Milton Friedman
Mean, Opportunity, Diversity
Milton Friedman (2017). “Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman”, p.127, Hoover Press

Unfortunately, unanimity is not always feasible.

Milton Friedman
Unanimity
Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.

Milton Friedman
Government, Thank God, Waste
Interview with Richard Heffner on "The Open Mind", December 7, 1975.

If instead of looking at income, you look at levels of consumption, if anything that's become more equal. The fraction of families that have a dishwasher, that have a sewing machine, that have a television set. In respect to consumption, it's very hard to avoid the view that people have been getting more equal rather than more unequal.

Milton Friedman
Views, People, Income
Source: www.pbs.org

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