Skip to content
MiltonFriedman.org

Milton Friedman on Energy and oil

But, you will say, rationing by price hurts the poor relative to the rich. What of the poor man with his old jalopy as the only way to get to work. The answer is straightforward. If high oil prices impose special problems on some, let us provide funds to mitigate their problem. Let us not impose compulsion and waste on 95 per cent to avoid special measures for 5 per cent.

Context. From a Newsweek column written about a month into the Arab oil embargo of 1973, while retail gasoline and fuel oil prices were still held down under the price controls President Nixon began on August 15, 1971. Later in the column he adds that what is called for is higher prices for oil products “relative to other products—not general inflation.”

Why Some Prices Should Rise
Column, 1973, Newsweek (November 19, 1973); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, November 29, 1973, p. 38775, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as “an article which appeared in the November 19, 1973, issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, November 29, 1973, p. 38775
Checked against the sourceRead the original

Where this comes from

Checked against the sourceThe wording was checked against the work itself.

Cite this passage

Milton Friedman, “Why Some Prices Should Rise” (Newsweek (November 19, 1973); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, November 29, 1973, p. 38775, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as “an article which appeared in the November 19, 1973, issue of Newsweek”, 1973), Congressional Record, November 29, 1973, p. 38775. https://miltonfriedman.org/quotes/rationing-by-price-hurts-poor-jalopy-1973

Quoted for commentary and research. Rights in the underlying work remain with its rights holder, so cite the work itself, not only this page.

Topics

He also said

  1. Time and again, I have castigated the oil companies for their hypocrisy, for loudly proclaiming their allegiance to free enterprise yet simultaneously undermining free enterprise by seeking and getting special governmental privilege (percentage depletion, prorationing of oil, import quotas, etc.). Yet we shall only hurt ourselves if we let resentment at their past misdeeds interfere with our adopting the most effective way to meet the present problem.

    Context. From a Newsweek column written about a month into the Arab oil embargo of 1973, while retail gasoline and fuel oil prices were still held down under the price controls President Nixon began on August 15, 1971.

    Why Some Prices Should Rise
    Column, 1973, Newsweek (November 19, 1973); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, November 29, 1973, p. 38775, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as “an article which appeared in the November 19, 1973, issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, November 29, 1973, p. 38775
    Checked against the sourceRead the original
  2. The oil problem offers a particularly clear illustration of how the price system promotes both freedom and efficiency, how it enables millions of us to cooperate voluntarily with one another in our common interest. It brings out equally why the only alternative to the price system is compulsion and the use of force.

    Context. From a Newsweek column written about a month into the Arab oil embargo of 1973, while retail gasoline and fuel oil prices were still held down under the price controls President Nixon began on August 15, 1971.

    Why Some Prices Should Rise
    Column, 1973, Newsweek (November 19, 1973); reprinted in full in the Congressional Record, Extensions of Remarks, November 29, 1973, p. 38775, introduced by Representative John H. Rousselot of California, who gives it as “an article which appeared in the November 19, 1973, issue of Newsweek”, Congressional Record, November 29, 1973, p. 38775
    Checked against the sourceRead the original
  3. How do patriotism and judgment determine that the price of a widget may rise 2.8 per cent but the price of a wadget, only 0.3 per cent; the wage of a widgeteer by 2 per cent but of a wadgeteer, by 10 per cent? Clearly they do not. Arbitrary judgment, political power, visibility—these are what will matter.

    Context. From the first of two New York Times op-ed essays written at Ely, Vermont, in October 1971, after the August 15 wage-price freeze and as the Nixon administration’s Phase II pay board and price board took over. The appeal, he has just written, is to “the patriotism, civic responsibility, and judgment of political appointees, most of whom represent vested interests.”

    Morality and Controls: I
    Column, 1971, The New York Times, October 28, 1971; reprinted in the Congressional Record, Senate, October 29, 1971, pp. 38201 to 38202, introduced by Senator Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon, who dates the two essays to “the October 28 and 29 editions of the New York Times”, under the header “[From the New York Times, Oct. 28, 1971]”, Congressional Record, October 29, 1971, pp. 38201–38202
    Checked against the sourceRead the original

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