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Milton Friedman on fairness and life's unfairness

What Friedman said about fairness, inherited advantage, and the limits of trying to equalize outcomes.

3 passages in the archive0 checked against the source3 not yet checked
  1. Although I wish the anarchists luck, since that’s the way we ought to be moving now. But I believe we need government to enforce the rules of the game. By prosecuting anti-trust violations, for instance. We need a government to maintain a system of courts that will uphold contracts and rule on compensation for damages. We need a government to ensure the safety of its citizens–to provide police protection. But government is failing at a lot of these things that it ought to be doing because it’s involved in so many things it shouldn’t be doing.
    Interview with Milton Friedman
    Interview, 1973, Playboy
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  2. The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most of his capacities and opportunities according to his own lights, subject only to the proviso that he not interfere with the freedom of other individuals to do the same. This implies a belief in the equality of man in one sense; in their inequality in another.
    Capitalism and Freedom
    Book, 1962, Ch. 12 The Alleviation of Poverty, 2002 edition, p. 195
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  3. Never underestimate the role of luck in the fate of individuals or of nations.
    Money Mischief
    Book, 1992, Ch. 9 Chile and Israel: Identical Policies, Opposite Outcomes
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