Milton Friedman on Inflation

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

Topics

• Inflation29 passages
• Taxes22 passages
• Politics, voting, and legislators31 passages

He also said

1. “Why do we have inflation? Because we, the citizens, have demanded it. We have sent a message to Washington. We said, we want you to spend more on roads. We want you to spend more on health. We want you to spend more on education. But don't tax us for it. … And so the difference is paid for by the hidden tax of inflation, which is the only tax that can be imposed on the American people without anybody having to vote for it.”

2. “Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much government is spending, because that is the true tax. Every budget is balanced. There is no such thing as an unbalanced federal budget. You're paying for it. If you're not paying for it in the form of explicit taxes, you're paying for it indirectly in the form of inflation or in the form of borrowing. The thing that you keep your eye on is what government spends. And the real problem is to hold down government spending as a fraction of our income. And if you do that, you can stop worrying about the deficit.”

3. “What is called a deficit is a form of taxation. It is a very bad form of taxation, but it is a form of taxation.”