Milton Friedman, cited.
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His principles, in his own words
The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.
Context. The closing words of the documentary half of the episode, which he narrates, just after distinguishing equality of opportunity from equality of outcome.
Created EqualTelevision, 1980, PBS, Free to Choose (1980), vol. 5, at 28:10Checked against the sourceWatch itThe only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that’s why it’s so essential to preserving individual freedom.
Context. Asked why free markets and freedom are inseparable, in a PBS interview for the series Commanding Heights.
Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman interviewInterview, 2000, PBS, “On Freedom and Free Markets,” interview conducted October 1, 2000Checked against the sourceRead the transcriptMarkets and discrimination
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. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.
Context. Closing his answer to an audience question about the diversity of the American population, in the question-and-answer session printed with the essay.
Why Government Is the ProblemJournal article, 1993, Hoover Institution Press, Essays in Public Policy no. 39, p. 18Checked against the sourceRead the originalOne of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
Context. Opening answer, after Heffner asks whether it is fair to call him a conservative economist and how he squares his views with providing for the poor and the aged.
The Open MindInterview, 1975, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “Living Within Our Means” (1975)Checked against the sourceWatch itNobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own.
Context. Asked why private property is so central to freedom, given the Marxist claim that property is theft, in a PBS interview for the series Commanding Heights.
Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman interviewInterview, 2000, PBS, “On Freedom and Free Markets,” interview conducted October 1, 2000Checked against the sourceRead the transcriptThe most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the scope and power of government. Tyranny, restrictions on human freedom, come primarily from governmental institutions that we ourselves set up.
Context. Asked what he would say are the unsolved economic problems of the day.
Interview with Milton FriedmanInterview, 1992, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, The Region, Interview by David Levy, June 1, 1992Checked against the sourceRead the transcriptThere is one and only one basic cause of inflation: too high a rate of growth in the quantity of money—too much money chasing the available supply of goods and services.
Context. From a Newsweek column of October 1977, when inflation, having fallen below 5 percent in 1976, was rising again and money growth had returned to its 1972 pace.
Why Inflation PersistsColumn, 1977, Newsweek (October 3, 1977); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 29, 1977, p. 31684, introduced by Representative Parren J. Mitchell of Maryland, who gives it as appearing “in the October 3, 1977, issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, September 29, 1977, p. 31684Checked against the sourceRead the original