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Milton Friedman on What government is for

A second function that governments have assumed and is appropriate for governments to assume is to help people who are in dire distress. We do have a situation in which individual citizens get into a situation, often through no fault of their own, in which they are in dire difficulty and one of those possible situations may be subject to very high medical expenses, but there is nothing special about that. Another reason for dire distress may be a flood that destroys a town or it may be an earthquake or it may be anything else. And in that sense there can be a role for government in assisting people and the terms ought to be the same, in my opinion, regardless of what is the cause.

Context. From a talk to physicians, published in Private Practice in July 1981, on the trend toward government control of medicine and the prospects for reversing it. Answering what the appropriate role of government in medicine is. The first function he names is enforcing laws against fraud and deception, as in every other field.

The Market and Human Freedom
Speech, 1981, Private Practice (July 1981); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 9, 1981, pp. 19996 to 19997, introduced by Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia as “Professor Friedman’s recent article on this subject” in “Private Practice magazine for July 1981”, Congressional Record, September 9, 1981, p. 19997
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Milton Friedman, “The Market and Human Freedom” (Private Practice (July 1981); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 9, 1981, pp. 19996 to 19997, introduced by Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia as “Professor Friedman’s recent article on this subject” in “Private Practice magazine for July 1981”, 1981), Congressional Record, September 9, 1981, p. 19997. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/government-help-people-dire-distress-1981

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He also said

  1. None of this means that government does not have a very real function. Indeed, the tragedy is that because government is doing so many things it ought not to be doing, it performs the functions it ought to be performing badly. The basic functions of government are to defend the nation against foreign enemies, to prevent coercion of some individuals by others within the country, to provide a means of deciding on our rules, and to adjudicate disputes.

    Context. From the essay’s survey of social problems he attributes to government. A footnote marker after the last word is omitted.

    Why Government Is the Problem
    Journal article, 1993, Hoover Institution Press, Essays in Public Policy no. 39, p. 6
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  2. Our problems have arisen from good people who are trying to do good, but trying to do good in a fundamentally flawed way. The welfare state is in many ways a noble construct, a noble concept. It's the concept that we ought to help our fellow men. … What flaws it is that it's one thing for you to help me out of your pocket. It's another thing for you to help me out of his pocket. And the fundamental flaw of the welfare state, in my opinion, is the idea that you should do good with somebody else's money.

    Context. Right after saying that the strategic necessity is a change in the climate of opinion that substitutes a belief in individual responsibility for what he calls the false belief in social responsibility, and that the problems have not come from evil people or a conspiracy.

    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1977, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy” (May 3, 1977)
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  3. The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most of his capacities and opportunities according to his own lights, subject only to the proviso that he not interfere with the freedom of other individuals to do the same. This implies a belief in the equality of men in one sense; in their inequality in another. Each man has an equal right to freedom. This is an important and fundamental right precisely because men are different, because one man will want to do different things with his freedom than another, and in the process can contribute more than another to the general culture of the society in which many men live. The liberal will therefore distinguish sharply between equality of rights and equality of opportunity, on the one hand, and material equality or equality of outcome on the other.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 12 “The Alleviation of Poverty”, p. 195
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