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Milton Friedman on Politics, voting, and legislators

Neither country is an ideal democracy—just as we are not. Both have serious racial problems—just as we have. Both can be justly criticized for not moving faster to eliminate discrimination—just as we can. But both provide a larger measure of freedom and affluence for all their residents—black and white—than most other countries of Africa.
Rhodesia
Column, 1976, Newsweek, May 3, 1976; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 29, 1976, pp. 11979 to 11980, introduced by Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio, who gives it as “an excellent article on Rhodesia by Milton Friedman, which appeared in the May 3 edition of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, April 29, 1976, p. 11979
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  1. The relation of the whites to the blacks is complex: a large dose of paternalism, social separation, discrimination in land ownership, and little or no official discrimination in other respects. In particular, there is no evidence of that petty apartheid—separate post-office entrances, toilets, and the like—that was our shame in the South and that I find so galling in South Africa.
    Rhodesia
    Column, 1976, Newsweek, May 3, 1976; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, April 29, 1976, pp. 11979 to 11980, introduced by Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio, who gives it as “an excellent article on Rhodesia by Milton Friedman, which appeared in the May 3 edition of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, April 29, 1976, p. 11979
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  2. President Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you —ask what you can do for your country.’… Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. ‘What your country can do for you’ implies that the government is the patron, the citizen the ward. ‘What you can do for your country’ assumes that the government is the master, the citizen the servant.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Introduction, p. 1
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  3. The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.
    Created Equal
    Television, 1980, PBS, vol. 5
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