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Milton Friedman on Concentrated power and tyranny

The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.
Free to Choose
Book, 1980, “Introduction”, p. 3
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  1. The fault is not with the people who run the system, but with the system itself. More fundamentally, the fault is with those of us who are responsible for replacing the economic market with the political market.
    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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  2. The political objections are perhaps more obvious than the economic ones. Is it really tolerable in a democracy to have so much power concentrated in a body free from any kind of direct, effective political control?
    Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?
    Journal article, 1962, In Search of a Monetary Constitution, ed. Leland B. Yeager (Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 219–243; reprinted in the House Banking and Currency Committee’s 1968 Compendium on Monetary Policy Guidelines and Federal Reserve Structure, pp. 205–214, p. 208 of the 1968 House reprint
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  3. I have no right to coerce someone else, because I cannot be sure that I am right and he is wrong.
    Say 'No' to Intolerance
    Speech, 1991, Liberty, vol. 4, no. 6 (July 1991), p. 17
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