Skip to content

Milton Friedman on Business, profit, and social responsibility

In a reaction that has become only too familiar, the big-government coalition has been threatening dire consequences if Jarvis-Gann passes: police and fire departments “crippled,” bond issues in “default,” “bankrupt schools.” The opposition is preparing to launch a major media blitz to be financed in large part by big business, which apparently has let fear of Sacramento trigger its unerring instinct for self-destruction.
A Progress Report
Column, 1978, Newsweek (April 10, 1978); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 4, 1978, pp. 8709 to 8710, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who describes it as “his byline article which appeared in the April 10, 1978 issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, April 4, 1978, pp. 8709 to 8710
Checked against the sourceRead the originalCite this passage

Where this comes from

Checked against the sourceThe wording was checked against the work itself.

Topics

He also said

  1. Jarvis-Gann has many defects. It is loosely drawn. It cuts only the property tax, which is by no means the worst tax. It does nothing to halt the unlegislated rise in taxes produced by inflation. Proposition 1 was a far better measure, and a revised version will be needed even if Jarvis-Gann is passed. Yet I strongly support Jarvis-Gann. It does cut taxes. It does raise obstacles to further increases in government spending. And it will not have the dire consequences its opponents threaten.
    A Progress Report
    Column, 1978, Newsweek (April 10, 1978); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 4, 1978, pp. 8709 to 8710, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who describes it as “his byline article which appeared in the April 10, 1978 issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, April 4, 1978, pp. 8709 to 8710
    Checked against the sourceRead the original
  2. In one sense, it is poetic justice that my colleagues and I at colleges and universities should now be suffering under the bureaucratic lash. For we have done more than any other group to produce a climate of opinion favorable to big government. So long as affirmative-action programs were directed at greedy businesses and grasping trade unions, academia for the most part cheered. And even now that its own ox is being gored, the typical reaction is that the academic world is “different.”
    Bureaucracy Scorned
    Column, 1975, Newsweek (December 29, 1975); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, August 26, 1976, p. 28015, under the heading “[From Newsweek, Dec. 29, 1975]”, introduced by Senator Mark Hatfield. Later collected in Bright Promises, Dismal Performance: An Economist’s Protest (1983)., Congressional Record, August 26, 1976, p. 28015
    Checked against the sourceRead the original
  3. Just as intellectuals bear major responsibility for instilling the view that big government is Santa Claus, so they can do more than any others to drive home the lesson that big government is really Frankenstein.
    Bureaucracy Scorned
    Column, 1975, Newsweek (December 29, 1975); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Senate, August 26, 1976, p. 28015, under the heading “[From Newsweek, Dec. 29, 1975]”, introduced by Senator Mark Hatfield. Later collected in Bright Promises, Dismal Performance: An Economist’s Protest (1983)., Congressional Record, August 26, 1976, p. 28015
    Checked against the sourceRead the original

Think this quote is wrong, misattributed, or missing context?Report it and it gets fixed, not argued with.