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Milton Friedman on What government is for

I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.
The Open Mind
Interview, 1975, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “Living Within Our Means” (1975)
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  1. The liberal conceives of men as imperfect beings. He regards the problem of social organization to be as much a negative problem of preventing 'bad' people from doing harm as of enabling 'good' people to do good; and, of course, 'bad' and 'good' people may be the same people, depending on who is judging them.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
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  2. None of this means that government does not have a very real function. Indeed, the tragedy is that because government is doing so many things it ought not to be doing, it performs the functions it ought to be performing badly. The basic functions of government are to defend the nation against foreign enemies, to prevent coercion of some individuals by others within the country, to provide a means of deciding on our rules, and to adjudicate disputes.
    Why Government Is the Problem
    Journal article, 1993, Hoover Institution Press, Essays in Public Policy no. 39, p. 6
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  3. Governments can most effectively collect taxes on things that can't move. That's why property taxes are invariably the first tax.
    Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman interview
    Interview, 2000, PBS, “Where We Stand Today,” interview conducted October 1, 2000
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