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Milton Friedman on The free society

The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.
Capitalism and Freedom
Book, 1962, Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
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  1. The liberal conceives of men as imperfect beings. He regards the problem of social organization to be as much a negative problem of preventing 'bad' people from doing harm as of enabling 'good' people to do good; and, of course, 'bad' and 'good' people may be the same people, depending on who is judging them.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
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  2. Is this due to bureaucratic organization? As some evidence, the number of school districts went down by 10 per cent, continuing a trend toward greater centralization and bureaucratization of education that has been going on now for decades.
    Gammon’s “Black Holes”
    Column, 1977, Newsweek (1977); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, November 30, 1977, p. 38195, introduced by Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio as “Mr. Friedman’s article on Gammon’s theory of bureaucratic displacement as it appeared in Newsweek.” The reprint gives no issue date, Congressional Record, November 30, 1977, p. 38195
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  3. What kind of society isn’t structured on greed? … So the problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm. It seems to me that the great virtue of capitalism is that it’s that kind of system. Because under capitalism, the power of any one individual over his fellow man is relatively small.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1973, Playboy
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