TAKE IT TO THE LIMITS: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism

[nagasnharpes]

Seat belt laws actually have a real purpose, since ones body can be a projectile that can hurt others.

[hnesrifdh]

surely a private non-profit organization can handle drug safety approval, similar to how the MPAA handles movie ratings. if a drug isn't approved by such an organization, stores could choose not to sell them, just like it is with theaters not showing unrated movies.

[Samsmycat2000]

Fratulence. What does deregulation have to do with the government mandating loans to risky borrowers?

[WVMADMAN1]

The moral perfection of libertarianism 23:50

Libertarians believe that people are smart and if shown the truth will share their point of view.

Progressives believe that people are stupid and must be tricked or dragged to their view.

[fraybird]

@WVMADMAN1 Spot ON!!

[publicanimal]

Whenever I have doubts about some of the extreme libertarian positions I hold which don't seem to resonate with most of my peers, I watch Milton Friedman videos and am again reminded of the supremacy of libertarian logic. We miss you Milton.

[monkeywolf]

....Ok I just have to point out....lol at the opening and how long you look! Makes you really notice how much time has passed.

[pretorious700]

helmet and seatbelt laws are perfect examples of government nannyism.

[HoGraz]

I think Milton Friedman was a well-meaning person, but many of the ideas he espoused seemed bad. Getting rid of the national parks is a horrible idea. Now our nation has sold off many of them to pay off our debt. That's pitiful.

[jetrpg22]

@HoGraz

nationalatlas.gov/printable/fe­dlands.html us gov owns 30%+ of land in the us. (not included state owned land)

And in the last two years 10 of millions of acres of land has been or is being prude to be purchased by the federal gov. (the same one running the massive debt).

Recently federal lands have been increasing but even if they have been decreasing this is good . search reason.tv and parks to see how private sector does what it does with land.

[pretorious700]

@HoGraz Private ownership and operation of parks would be beneficial to the parks, the people who patronize them, and the taxpayer.

[HoGraz]

DAMN GOVERNMENT!!! ABOLISH it and just have a truer form of corporate tyranny!!!

[HanStanwell]

@HoGraz is corporate tyranny scarier than gov't tyranny? corporations have to obey the law just like us, but the gov't does what it pleases whether we like it or not. re: national parks, he never said get rid of parks he just said get them out of gov't ownership.

[jetrpg22]

@HoGraz

I have seen many times in history government tyranny, but ever corporate tyranny. Odd no?

[casanova0102]

Milton Friedmen convert.

[Mackingster]

I wish I could have had Milton Friedman as a teacher. I would loved to pick his brain.

[melodicdreamer72]

I thought during Milton's latter years he admitted support for a carbon tax was wrong. He was pushing it pretty heavy here. 

[Buergs323]

@melodicdreamer72

No he wan't. He was merely suggesting we regulate how much pollution is emitted in the air. He wasn't talking about "taxing" a certain amount...just a mere gov't regulation -- which the government already does. He would not, in any instance, support something as insane as the Cap and Tax bill.

[ferreus]

Central Park would be better privately owned? Give me a break. Any private owner would chop it up and sell, and if it's a park-lover, build a grander park on less valuable land . But the obvious loss for the New Yorkers, the libertarian would just point to some negligible material gain for this great loss.

[mikepalomino]

It baffles me this man won a Nobel.

Of course the faithful will eat it up as Gospel but for critical thinkers his claims are flimsy and easily refutable.

His claim of rural child labor being worse than urban labor in 19th century England is false for instance. Rural children were forced into the cities by wealthy elites leveraging their political power to make farmers poorer.

Libertarianism is not an economic/political belief. It is a religion. Accepted solely on faith and zero facts.

[goodatbasebal]

@mikepalomino "Rural children were forced into the cities by wealthy elites leveraging their political power to make farmers poorer" I don't think it was possible for that to happen insofar as children were banned from working more than 48 hours and 69 hours(1833) for ages above 13. So this whole notion that they were "forced" is fallacious as the "elites" could have easily removed that law & made them work more.

Any other blabber you may make is purely hyperbole as well as uninformed.

[Intellisecular]

@mikepalomino. Ok smart ass. Suppose you're a parent living in 19th century rural England. How would you've kept your child from starving?

[claytongault]

@mikepalomino Friedman won the Nobel prize in Economics in 1976 "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilisation policy", not for his political views or his analysis of the Industrial Age. Just like Krugman won his in '08 "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity". There should be nothing surprising about it if you are indeed a critical thinker.

[madass888]

@mikepalomino

What's libertarian about "wealthy elites leveraging their POLITICAL power to make farmers poorer"?

[ArgusEyes]

@mikepalomino Can you substantiate that these are faith claims? A faith claim is of the form; 'I believe because I believe'. Here, you have a stream of reasons for why Friedman believes what he believes. Also for belief system == religion is to take all meaning from the word. mikepalomino appears to not know what words mean, or not care about how he or she uses them.

[S0chan]

I love Dr Freedman but I feel that he forgot to mention the communication infrastructure.

The government has to build roads. I haven't seen so far a good way to build roads without the government.

But I may be mistaken.

[claytongault]

@S0chan Yes, roads can be built without the government, and have been. This goes for railroads too, as history shows.

[fratulence]

It seems to me the flaw in Friedman's argument is the supposition corporations will always act in their own best interest. There is abundant evidence this is not the case. The present economic collapse is but one example of a relaxation of regulation being a direct cause of the problem.

[melodicdreamer72]

@fratulence What regulation was relaxed to cause the current economic condition? One thing that stands out in my mind to have caused this problem is when the government stepped in and forced banks to lend money to people who had very little chance of being able to pay it back (especially notable in relation to the housing market). The funny thing is when I hear someone say something along the lines of 'now the government has to step in and put some regulate to keep this from happening again'.