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  • i am a huge Friedman fan. However, the price system breaks down when you demand that your firms be given access to a countries resources irrespective of the populations wishes. To hijack that countries government controls and institutions, and conclude a deal at the barrel of a gun. Over 700 US military bases across the globe, many in regions where the people want the US outta there. But they have strategic reasons to maintain, as such, they occupy. Utube CHALMERS JOHNSON to educate yourself

  • @1871bismarck If you take the resources away from a country against that people's will, you are simply not using the price system anymore. The definition of the price system is "voluntary exchange of goods and services". Anything else would be called something else.

  • @1871bismarck I suspect Friedman would say the same thing.

  • I can find at least one thing that he mentions thats not entirly accurate even plain wrong.

  • this is super simple

  • It's unfortunate Obama does not understand these simple facts

  • well, as other intellectual hero said, ''To make a pencil (apple pie actually) from scratch, you first have to create the universe!'' Carl Sagan.

  • the 5 dislikes on this video are from fidal castro, kim jong il , hugo chavez, evo morales, and barack obama.

  • @imamrauf barack obama??? rather choose mao zedong.

  • @imamrauf one more, it looks like Hu Jintoa just saw this video...

  • The notion, in the description, that there is no common interest is a falsehood. The common interest is making money and its the best interest to have.

  • Had Gov't made that same pencil it would have cost $3.00 and wouldn't write or erase - but of course we'd be forced to buy it anyway and smile as it was shoved down our throats - just like ObamaCare!

  • Apparently, people interested in listening to Milton Friedman are generally not fans of The Big Lebowski...

  • @diilijethro True. That is what the Constitution does in the form of voting for someone else to vote for us. But by using the Constitution I believe that makes us a Constitutional Republic. The rule of law.

  • @diilijethro No, but that is what democracy is. Majority rule. Or am I miss understanding you?

  • @diilijethro A Huge chunk of what? Here is a video with Milton explaining it in his own words.

    watch?v=lMb_72hgkJk

  • @diilijethro Milton Friedman did not believe in democracy. In other wards 51% telling 49% what to do is not free choice. He believed in the Free Market, with a limited government an the rule of law. Which in the United States of America, would be the Constitution.

  • @diilijethro wouldn't it be much simpler to dismantle the govt altogether?

    i never really cared much for democracy. sounds like communism to me since it assumes that property is communally owned and thus can be voted upon. if people really did have the right to own their home and their property, then people shouldn't be allowed to vote to take them away, or increase taxes or whatever

  • @diilijethro why advocate for a limited government then?

  • @diilijethro Like I said, to believe that the state would remain within the limits we impose upon it *IS* utopian. Anyway, you either believe in property rights or you don't. If he believes in taxation, then he is against it.

  • the hero is the pencil not milton friedman

  • @excelsior544 - I say that I almost agree with you. "I believe the gov. has an important role to play, but it's influence ..., while protecting the environment and advancing the common good ..., should also strive to enhance" --not eviscerate-- Democracy.

    I have no considered opinion of MF's body of work; yet, I have no doubt that his ideas are being used, today, to subjugate "the other 99%" of the world - in the name of NeoLiberalism.

  • R&R express? Romney and Rubio, Not an ideal ticket for the base, but people are so desperate, enough of them, in my opinion, will go for a moderate Mprmon. Obama knows the pencil example, I'm sure, but perhaps is hung up on the imperfections of free markets. I believe the gov. has an important role to play, but it's influence should, while protecting the environment and advancing the common good generally, should also strive to enhance--not enervate--the capitalist system. What say you?

  • Im lovin' the Big Lebowski references on here lol :-)

    OVER THE LINE!

  • Milton Freidman's words should be put together and replayed on channel one every year. (DRUG LAWS, Illegal Immigration, The Great Depression, Etc)

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  • seems veyr intellectual but i sitll think he misses the ideas of market failure, imperfect information and the like

  • @Thentox No he doesn't, if you watch his other work you'll see he generally attributes all of those things to govt

  • @Thentox Do you really believe a nobel-prize winning economist doesn't understand and elementary economic concept such as market failure?

    Many people believe that Friedman is saying free market is perfect, that's a misconception, he champions free market is because it's RELATIVELY the best system, he concedes that there is no utopia, that there will be impoverished people under any system.

    The question of "compare to what" is very important.

  • @yamahaU3 he was a minarchist. he is thus a utopian. as long as there us some state, it will always grow into more state. america is the failed experiment of a limited government.

  • @DollFacePeter I'm aware of that....

  • @yamahaU3 so you agree then that it is hypocritical for friedman to assert that there is no utopia on the one hand, yet advocate for a truly limited government on the other?

  • So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know...

  • LibertyPen(cil)

  • Pretty interesting stuff. Also, Dude... chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian American, please.

  • @Visda58 Asian is not descriptive at all. A Frenchman is a European, sure, but you lose so much description.

  • @runawaymotor Donny.. you're out of your element; Dude.. the chinaman is not the issue here!

  • @Visda58 Who's Donny?

  • @runawaymotor

    Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and bowling, and as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo and... up to... Pismo. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364!...

  • @runawaymotor ....These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince.

  • @Visda58 This is like really really old and the dudes dead already... Im sure he didnt mean anything against them when he said chinaman. If you watch some of his old series free to choose you can tell he likes alot of the asian countries.

  • @ssjwes I'M TALKING ABOUT DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND!

  • @Visda58 If you're right then you can't say "American man" either.

  • @starsassy ...in the parlance of our times.

  • @Visda58

    Was a different times holmes

  • @canefan17 Watch the fucking Big Lebowski already people

  • @Visda58 Chinaman was the preferred nomenclature in 1978.

  • @Visda58 These aren't the people who build the railroads we are talking about here

  • @roddack At last. Thank you. The bums lost.

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  • @Visda58 This was in the 70s. Chinaman was still acceptable.

  • @Visda58 It wasn't recorded in 2011

  • @Visda58 it was at the time and was perfectly acceptable.

  • @Visda58 Uhh, Dude ... in his defense, when this video was filmed there was not yet widespread integration of Asian-American immigrants yet.

  • @MikeMitts But they went out and achieved ANYway! And proud we are of all of them.

  • @Visda58 he said negro in another video, but these videos are from another time when those two words had a slightly different meaning to them, milton is a nice guy believe me bro

  • @bajskorvaren THE BIG LEBOWSKI....WATCH IT.

  • @Visda58 seen it

  • @bajskorvaren Then you should get the joke.

  • @Visda58 do elaborate, i dont get the joke

  • @Visda58 shut the f*** up donny

  • @Visda58 Oriental is more accurate.

  • @Visda58 dude this was in the 70s, get some context

  • @Visda58

    Dipshit, Asian American =/= Chinaman. 

  • Milton: 30,000 + people made a pencil

    CCTECH: I do not give a f**k you bald prick

  • @xxCCTECHxx You simple minded jackass.

  • "I, Pencil" by Leonard Read only takes about ten minutes to read. I require it in my undergraduate Managerial Economics class.

  • I'm not sure what the point of this talk is except an elementary description of exchange. For an almost identical description of the circulation of commodities and the price system written 100 years prior see chapter 3 of Capital, Volume 1 by Karl Marx : "Money, or the Circulation of Commodities"

    This isn't an argument for or against anything, it's just a description. Friedman gives weird talks. A true dogmatist.

  • Milton Friedman explains Minecraft...

  • An economic Billy Graham.

  • I really enjoyed the bit at 3:45 that showed the bearded guy looking completely baffled, almost edgy at what his logic had never ventured to consider. Now, I don't know that for fact, I'm going on appearance. He may have hemorrhoids or something, so apologies if thats the case. The scary part is far too many people have not been exposed to this kind of thinking. They think milk comes from a cooler and not a cow. A McChicken actually involves the death of a chicken. Fuck Youtube Im out of space

  • Love this man, but he sounds like Don Knotts

  • Milton Friedman was a intellectual hero of his time.

  • @MartinPerssonDotName I disagree. He is also a hero of our time, and will continue being a hero for generations to come. He is still alive in videos like these. And influences just as much today. I'm a 15 year old in high school and have used his knowledge to debate, students and teachers alike. And when it comes to economics I always win. It's because this great man is still changing lives.

  • @PivotB3stZ His time is still our time.

  • @MartinPerssonDotName Its funny that you are writing about how intellectual he was, and yet your comment has a blatant, elementary typo in it. Come on!

  • @MikeMitts It is called dyslexia. And besides, English is the stupidest language in the world, nothing is ever spelled the way it is pronounced. You need to memorise the spelling for every single word because there are no universal rules to it. Native English speakers don't notice it though because they have nothing to compare it to.

  • yup open sweatshops to create pencil lol

    and take jobs out of america

    lol

  • @MrBigEnchilada that is coz gobment regulated all biz out of country so that it is not profitable to make those in the country.

  • @MrBigEnchilada Not true, statism is what created the need for sweatshops in the first place, not pencil production....

  • @mikeshanklin I guess its really easy for a suburbian fag like you to cry about "sweatshops" when you don't the first thing about the people that worked in them. Its always really funny to hear sheltered little pussys such as yourself drinking a Fuiji bottled water and talking about the rights of man. What constitutes a "sweatshop"? Maybe the "sweatshop" gave them a better life than they previously had....why else would you work there?

  • @bkl139 I agree, "sweatshops" should be legal, but they would not exist in real freedom (free market anarchy)... Statism is what creates them in the first place. You don't have to work in one to understand that...

  • @MrBigEnchilada I guess you have never used a pencil. Except the one you have in your pants.

  • I agree with this lesson to some extent but the only problem is that even a simple pencil is no longer manufactured in the USA (and they used to be...Eberhard-Faber, Dixon-Ticonderoga, etc all gone, ALL GONE). Why? Go to any Staples or office supply store and look at the label on every box of pencils and you will see the same three ugly words MADE IN CHINA.

  • @68lincoln It does not matter where they are manufactured business does what it has to do to survive. We manufacture plenty and the market is global

  • How does a person get from subsistence farming to a dangerous factory in countries where there isn't coercion by force?

  • @HelderWeil - Then there isn't coercion. They decide that it is in their best interest to work in that factory. It's voluntary. They would rather have the money (however insignificant the amount is to you) than continue to scrape by subsistence farming.

    It's their choice. What seems a terrible option to you is a very attractive option to them, or they wouldn't take it.

  • @mpc91 Ok, I think I got lost in the thread here. I'm not sure what your post, above, is responding to.

  • @HelderWeil - I'm sorry, I was responding to threads at the top, and not all of your posts came through, so I was trying to catch up.

  • @mpc91- Speaking of free markets, I'd better get back to doing my job! It's been really nice chatting with you about this very nuanced and interesting issue. Best regards, -Helder

  • Critics might respond: The problem is that coercion is an integral part of competition. The drive to compete is the drive to find goods/labor more cheaply through leverage of power which happens, in part, through coercion of those who lack (or are deprived of) the power to resist it. Coercion isn’t an anomaly in free markets; it’s part of what makes it work. Not that there’s a perfect alternative, but this flaw needs to be acknowledged and dealt with.

  • @HelderWeil - No, coercion is a function of centrally planned economies.

    Yes, there is a drive to find the best value for goods and labor. This is not necessarily always the cheapest.

    But where is this coercion you speak of, the minute you have actual coercion by force, you cease having a free market. And if that coercion is economic, it is still free. If someone does something better, than your choice is either to improve or change your field. Either way everyone wins.

  • @mpc91-you raise too many points, hard for 500 character response! Question: why is a market still "free" if the coercion is economic? Can't threat of hunger due to economic coercion (provided you submit the connection here; I can delineate if see fit) be just as compelling as the threat of violence? Also, were 1000s of 1900s NYC& today's Bangladeshi garment factory workers consumed in fires caused by lack of safety regulation in factories "winners" in a free market? Thanks for good discussion!

  • @HelderWeil - But would government regulation have saved those workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, or in Bangladesh? While its true that workplace injuries have fallen since the creation of OSHA, it is also true that they were falling BEFORE it's creation as well. And the rate of improved safety is on the same curve.

    It is in the best interest of the company to keep it's workers safe and happy, if only for purely selfish reasons. Happy and safe workers will be more productive.

  • @mpc91- Is it always profitable to place worker safety above cost cutting? If it is, why haven't factories in Bangladesh, etc., implemented/enforced regulations that everyone knows prevent injury? When it's more profitable to have unsafe yet cheap work (which I think it is sometimes) I think that, yes, gvt reg's do protect worker safety&save lives. Do you? And what to my point about "economic coercion?" I look forward to your reply!

  • @HelderWeil - No, government regulation don't protect workers safety and save lives. If they did, the rate of accidents would have increased drastically since the creation of OSHA, but they haven't. We have spent billions for no significant improvement in the rate of worker safety. Add to that the opportunity cost of whatever good or service those OSHA workers could have provided.

    It costs more to bring in and train a new employee than it does to keep an experienced one.

  • @HelderWeil - What is economic coercion? If one must take a job rather than starve, that job is far better than the alternative of starvation. That choice is what would be taken away by those who would tell people what they must pay someone. These jobs are a first step out of poverty.

    What you see as exploitation is seen as opportunity by those who work there. NYC doesn't have such factories anymore, but not due to government regulation, but rather as a natural result of economic development.

  • @mpc91- But how is it that people find themselves in a position to either take job at an unsafe factory or starve?How does the story get to that point?

  • @HelderWeil - In most places around the world it's subsistence farming. In turn of the century New York they were immigrants. Usually in today's world they are in countries that are very poor, usually due to government dictatorships and harsh limits on economic freedoms, where personal property rights are not protected.

  • @mpc91- So are you saying that today people who are pushed off their land and forced to choose between starvation and a dangerous factory job, are forced into that position by gvt coercion?

  • @HelderWeil - Um... yes. You don't make the connection between "pushed off their lands" and "personal property rights not protected"?

    Absolutely they are forced into that choice by government coercion. Either the government is the one pushing them off their land, or government is permitting theft on a grand scale.

    One of government's few legitimate functions is protecting the personal property rights of individuals.

  • @mpc91 So would you say that in these countries where gvt has failed to protect personal properties rights thereby forcing people from farm to factory, the laborers are not working in a free market? (I'm referencing your earlier comment "the minute you have actual coercion by force, you cease having a free market.")

  • @HelderWeil - If they have had their land taken away, then yes, force has been used and the market is not free. This is a failing of government, not of the free market. Usually the land was taken - by the government. It is restrictions placed on business that limit the expansion of wealth in poorer countries.

    The solution to problems caused by government is never the expansion of the power of government.

  • @mpc91 Ah! now I got off track and accidentally responded to your post above, disregard last! So we would say that where ever we saw people forced off their land because the government failed to adequately protect property rights, there is no free market, or does this only pertain to situations where the government actually seizes the property itself?

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  • GE-NI-OUS!

  • Despite my socialism, I like Friedman. He's sharp and honest. But he doesn't account for externalities.

  • @TheVideoRepo which externalities are you reffering to?

  • @Chaaarge

    Corruption is the big one.

  • @TheVideoRepo I agree, but that's why most libertarians say that we need to stop lobbyists, and also be very strict with anti fraud rules. Of course corruption has to be fought against. I absolutely agree

  • @TheVideoRepo - But corruption is caused by the state. It's government influence that draws corruption. This corruption creates something that is not the free market, it's crony capitalism.

    Using government influence to favor one business over another. Through regulation, tax breaks, etc. that limit competition.

    But the solution to this problem is less government, not more.

  • Someone needs to send this video to Obama.

  • How about a cup of Tea?

  • How refreshing:  Milton Friedman was the rare Jew, without being a Socialist/Communist !

  • @JosephLScottPhD Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Wayne Allen Root, just off the top of my head...

  • Milton Friedman is awesome.

  • at 3:45 drooling 

  • great spokesman, bad philosopher

  • @MrCrgl

    He isn't a Philosopher, he is an economist...a Nobel prize winning economist.

  • @Califacience Did you really think I didnt know before posting ? I insist, great spokeman, bad philosopher.

  • @MrCrgl - You can insist whatever you want. You can insist the ocean is made of skittles, but it will never be so.

    Friedman's philosophy is excellent.

  • @mpc91 WTF is a "skittle" ? "Friedman's philosophy is excellent." ???? Philosophy's need not to be excellent, they have to be true. Maybe for you it is "excellent" that the ocean is made out of "skittles" but.....again, WTF is a "skittle" ?

  • @MrCrgl - A Skittle is a tiny candy treat made by the Wm. Wrigley Company. Not really all that obscure a reference. A Google search and .05 seconds could've found that answer for you.

    And if you would prefer, Friedman's philosophy is true. It is excellent in how well thought out it is, and how it applies to the rights of man.

    Your argument consists of nothing more than "cause I said so", and that just doesn't fly. Repeating your nonsense over and over again doesn't give it validity.

  • @mpc91 Yeah, I suppose that your "excellent phillosophy"coment was not a cause-I-said-so type of argument. What do you think ? Do you like the "skittle"?

  • @MrCrgl - If you're going to bring nothing to the table, why should I. I'm trying to engage you on your terms, so yeah non sequiter seemed appropriate.

    Friedman believes that people should be free to make their own decisions without government interference, that private citizens make better decisions for themselves than government bureaucrats, and that the free market does better than central planners. You disagree?

    And I haven't had Skittles in maybe 20 years, but the kids seem to like them.

  • @mpc91 . Yes, I disagree, Your comment about Friedman is non sequitUr (not sequitEr) since I already know what he believes, Who doesnt in this times of Teabagger Friedman revival ?

  • @MrCrgl - So you disagree for no particular reason. You have nothing but name calling. I'm done with you. Good day.

  • @Califacience

    I'd say he is both an economist and a Philosopher :)

  • @Califacience hehe Nobel prize is not something i would give a high standard. Paul Krugman has a Nobel prize and Obmama of peace.......... LOL

  • @BirgirZ I wouldn't put a high standard on ANYTHING that belongs to this era, but Friedman received his Nobel in 1976

  • @Califacience Yeah, but he was something of a philosopher too.

  • I recently heard Peter Schiff's brother [Andrew] say that this pencil story is based on Adam Smith's wool coat analogy.

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  • Lol @ the time-specific inflation joke.

  • ha, they still make those exact same pencils.

    love friedman, but austrian's take the cake.

  • freaking brilliant!

  • Milton Friedman--man of reason. Why on Earth is he not still alive, to kick that idiot Paul Krugman's rear end into logical oblivion?!?

    We need another genius like Friedman around, today!

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  • @RushLimborg The man that at least channels genius [von Mises and FA Hayek] IS around today. His name is Peter Schiff. His Youtube channel is called SchiffReport and he also hosts The Peter Schiff Show. @JudgeNap is also an Austrian Schooler who believes in Gold Standard.

  • The Bilderbergs and the Rothchilds are the ones that planned out the pencil.

  • i love it when my homework for a class is to watch some video

    this video wasnt actually all that boring it was quite interesting actually.

  • @Trey2391

    Your teacher told you to watch this video?

  • . . . Oh, that's right, you haven't seen that, even when you did, because in your eyes, America is bad, bad, bad. Right? Wrong. You Marxists go live in another country - in your chosen utopia and leave us alone and quit trying to ruin my home. Let us be free to invent, improve, and invest in good solutions so that others can take our lead as we've always done. Dumbutts.

  • What is it with you people and the environmental thing? First off, we have about the cleanest country in the world environmentally which segues into this point: You Marxists who want nothing more than to hoist your socialist, Marxist control on others (please get a life) is the cause of inefficiencies, which - surprise - indirectly and directly causes dirtiness in the environment. Just look at examples of other communist or collectivist countries and how dirty they are... (continued). . .

  • @sonicdewd: I find it interesting that you blend Marxism with the environment. Just because some of us who like a clean environment doesn't make you a lefty. To me, the environment is a non-partisan issue (although I will admit many lefties are in that camp and perhaps that's what causes the confusion).

  • @frnksng Point taken.

  • The only thing I hate about capitalism is its side effects. It doesn't take into account the environmental damage that is done when building products. Another side effect is how it promotes materialism and self-indulgence.

    Aside from that, the system is fine.

  • @frnksng: True. The environmental impact isn't considered in Adam Smith's model nor is it mentioned in this video. Right now, we have the technology to get off of oil (and everybody knows that) but we're stuck due to the market

  • @all028

    Actually because of government subsidies to oil companies artificially keeping the prices of gas low. If the prices would reflect their true market value, the incentive would be for new companies to come in offering alternative fuel sources.

  • @frnksng

    Capitalism has provided society with such a massive material wealth that we can spend much of our time doing whatever we feel like. I like dancing, gymnastics and software development, which are hardly materialistic persuits. If I had lived in the mideval ages I would have spent my entire day trying to gather enough food survive at a minimum. Capitalism has allowed spiritual persuits and reduced the need for material ones.

  • @Illyrien: Absolutely. We live in a wealthy society that gives us those freedoms. But not everyone is like you. Many indulge in destructive behavior like drugs, prostitution, etc. In addition, don't confuse some of your freedoms with capitalism vs a nation's strength in security.

  • this vid was a great help for me to understand the story about the I, pencil by L.R :) thankyou.

  • freakin awesome example...a pencil.

  • Capitalism is about the Free Market, meaning you can sell your products based on what people are willing to pay for them & you can make as much money as your worth in the market. Capitalism is not about greed its about the market.

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