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Milton Friedman on Intellectuals, the press, and public opinion

You know, the believers in collectivism, the believers in socialism are on the defensive everywhere. Very seldom do people who have taken a very strong and firm position change their position. People pretty well are set in their ways after the age of 25, but you have new generations arising and you have a whole mess of the population that has come to the conclusion that it has been sold a bill of goods and that it has come to realize that these miracles promised by governmental control are not going to emerge.

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. On why he was more optimistic in 1981 than five or ten years earlier, citing a worldwide movement of opinion away from collectivism.

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/new-generations-sold-bill-of-goods-1981

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He also said

  1. The price system works so well, so efficiently, that we are not aware of it most of the time. We never realize how well it functions until it is prevented from functioning, and even then we seldom recognize the source of the trouble.
    Free to Choose
    Book, 1980, Ch. 1 "The Power of the Market", p. 14
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  2. What kind of society isn’t structured on greed? … So the problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm. It seems to me that the great virtue of capitalism is that it’s that kind of system. Because under capitalism, the power of any one individual over his fellow man is relatively small.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1973, Playboy, February 1973; reprinted in There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (Open Court, 1975), p. 31
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  3. What country in the world today engages in the most extreme anti-Semitic persecution? The Soviet Union. It’s not an accident, because if you have a society with concentrated power, if you have a collectivist society, it’s going to be in a position to exercise the preferences and prejudices of its rulers. Moreover, it’s going to have an incentive to do so, because it’s going to need a scapegoat and it will choose some group like the Jews or the blacks to be the scapegoat.

    Context. From a 1973 interview published in Playboy, on why he held that concentrated, collectivist power breeds persecution of minorities.

    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1973, Playboy, February 1973; reprinted in There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (Open Court, 1975), p. 34
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