Milton Friedman on Politics, voting, and legislators
How can $2.4 billion be a compromise between $2.7 billion and $2.8 billion? The answer is easy—if you are an expert at parliamentary maneuvering.
Context. From a September 1971 Newsweek column on the House-Senate conference report on the bill to extend the draft and pave the way for an all-volunteer armed force, written while the Senate had yet to vote on it. He goes on to show, figure by figure, how the conference arrived at $2.4 billion. The cut falls on the pay of first-term enlisted men and officers, whose underpayment he calls a major obstacle to recruiting volunteers.
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Milton Friedman, “The Draft Uncompromise” (Newsweek, September 6, 1971; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, September 8, 1971, p. 31094, introduced by Representative William A. Steiger of Wisconsin under the header “[From Newsweek Magazine, Sept. 6, 1971]”, 1971), Congressional Record, September 8, 1971, p. 31094. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/how-can-2-4-billion-be-a-compromise-1971
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He also said
The key question is, therefore, whether it is feasible to man the Vietnam war with volunteers. I believe the answer is, Yes. Will it be easy to do so? The answer is clearly, No. But that is hardly decisive. The aim of national policy should not be to make life easy for government officials, whether civilian or military.
Context. From a Newsweek column written after the November 1968 election, proposing that the incoming Nixon administration stop sending draftees to Vietnam as a first step toward an all-volunteer army.
No Draftees to VietnamColumn, 1968, Newsweek (December 30, 1968); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, January 16, 1969, pp. 1161 to 1162, introduced by Representative Henry B. Gonzalez as “Mr. Friedman’s column, from the December 30, 1968, issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, January 16, 1969, p. 1161Checked against the sourceRead the originalI would far rather have total federal spending at $200 billion with a deficit of $100 billion than a balanced budget at $500 billion. The thing we must keep our eye on is what government spends.
Context. From a 1978 Policy Review article on the tax-limitation movement, written the day after California voters approved Proposition 13 (the Jarvis-Gann amendment). Its opening reworks his April 1978 Newsweek column “A Progress Report”; the passages quoted from it here are from the later, new part of the argument.
The Limitations of Tax LimitationJournal article, 1978, Policy Review (The Heritage Foundation); reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, June 7, 1979, pp. 14069 to 14071, introduced by Representative Hamilton Fish, Jr. of New York as “an article by Dr. Friedman published in Policy Review, the quarterly journal of The Heritage Foundation”, Congressional Record, June 7, 1979, p. 14070Checked against the sourceRead the originalThe negative lesson is that we must beware of intolerance if we’re going to be really effective in persuading people. The writings of both Rand and Mises—and much libertarian literature—take for granted that hard questions have easy answers, that it’s possible to know something about the real world, to derive substantive conclusions, from purely a priori principles.
Context. After criticizing Mises’s praxeology and Rand’s derivation of everything from A=A, while saying that nothing lessens his admiration for what both did to promote liberty and free markets.
Say 'No' to IntoleranceSpeech, 1991, Liberty, vol. 4, no. 6 (July 1991), p. 18Checked against the sourceRead the original
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