Skip to content

Milton Friedman on Freedom and equality

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 man in one sense; in their inequality in another.
Capitalism and Freedom
Book, 1962, Ch. 12 The Alleviation of Poverty, 2002 edition, p. 195
Not yet checkedCite this passage

Where this comes from

Not yet checkedThe wording comes from a secondary compilation and has not yet been checked against the work itself.

Topics

He also said

  1. In the past century a myth has grown up that free market capitalism—equality of opportunity as we have interpreted that term—increases such inequalities, that it is a system under which the rich exploit the poor. Nothing could be further from the truth. Wherever the free market has been permitted to operate, wherever anything approaching equality of opportunity has existed, the ordinary man has been able to attain levels of living never dreamed of before. Nowhere is the gap between rich and poor wider, nowhere are the rich richer and the poor poorer, than in those societies that do not permit the free market to operate.
    Free to Choose
    Book, 1980, Ch. 5 “Created Equal”, p. 146
    Not yet checked
  2. He may have values and beliefs of his own, but no man becomes President who has not developed the capacity to rise above principle.
    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1977, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy” (May 3, 1977)
    Checked against the sourceWatch it
  3. As liberals, we take freedom of the individual, or perhaps the family, as our ultimate goal in judging social arrangements. Freedom as a value in this sense has to do with the interrelations among people
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
    Not yet checked

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