Milton Friedman

Pure brilliance

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News & Politics

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• Milton
• Friedman
• libertarian
• free
• market

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@JoshMan522 I'm a small business owner. I'm not rich, but I earn more than my employees. I earn more because I created the functional system and worked 70hour weeks for 6years. My effort and risk now provides the opportunity of 40 jobs. Incentive and huge risk, has expanded the economy, and everyone is granted more opportunity.

How else does job creation happen?

Open your own business, you would learn that "the rich" do not prevent you from succeeding, the government does =)

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@MrJarth I don't see a problem with large companies. We need industrial sized organizations to produce the needs of society, energy, communication, research and technical manufacturing. I do have a problem with monopolies and crony capitalism.

I'm sympathetic to your perspective, but remember to look at human history on a continuum rather than in a moment. America went through the same stages that India and China are going through now. Developing nations are catching up very fast. =)

[TheScyy]

@TheBalancedAmerican Which is why its so annoying to see people pin all of our current issues on capitalism without having the first idea of what we actually are nowadays.

[TheScyy]

@TheBalancedAmerican And I'll agree with you there, there are certain regulations I'll agree with. Like glass steagall for example, granted I personally believe had the banks not already known they would be bailed out I doubt they would have been nearly as risky. And I'll agree with you that capitalism has it's short comings but a good read through history shows that the most capitalist societies have often turned out to be the most prosperous.

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@TheScyy Related to this topic, I often use two of Friedman's quotes:

1) "A common mistake made by people is to judge a system based on it's intention rather than it's result."

2) "Place equality before freedom, and you will get neither. Place freedom before equality, and you will get a great degree of both." =)

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@TheScyy There are social and environmental issues with capitalism. Everyone is winning, but the gap between rich & poor is increasing, which brings social unrest, or oligarchy at worst.

Also, capitalism is based on infinite growth, which will eventually hurt us on an enviro. level. This probably won't be solved until population growth stabilizes.

Capitalism has shortcomings, but it isn't the cause of our problems. Bloated government is the root of the challenge we face today. =)

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@TheScyy Ha! I'm usually the one advocating the merits of free-markets. Having got my degree in economic history, and then teaching it, I agree with you about 95%. There is no doubt that capitalist systems have delivered the greatest prosperity to the great number of people.

All that said, Capitalism isn't perfect. There is a roll for government in regulation, infrastructure, and providing opportunity to children. Imo, free primary education is essential for capitalism.

[cont]

[TheScyy]

@TheBalancedAmerican You're falling into the same trap he's talking about though. On paper these are great ideas that most people can get behind. In practice they rarely have the effects we would want of them. I absolutely agree with the sentiment and used to completely back the ideas. But the more I read and the more research I've done the more I've seen that Friedman and others like him are almost completely right about this. I wish it wasn't true but history has shown the inevitable result.

[TheBalancedAmerican]

@panayiotisdemopoulos "Greeks are now being devoured by corporatism"

America suffers from oligarchy as well. One of our founders said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Unfettered corporatism seems like a reasonable cause to discourage.

However,imo, the fiscal problems in Greece are related to Gov spending. Greece is not alone, most developed countries are facing similar deficits. Greece is just the first =(

[panayiotisdemopoulos]

@TheBalancedAmerican Let me rephrase, as I concede that part of what you are saying is true. The Greeks are now being devoured by corporatism.

[panayiotisdemopoulos]

@TheBalancedAmerican Justice for all?