Milton Friedman Quotes - Page 11

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• The fall of the Berlin Wall really demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that there was a bad system, and what subsequently happened in the Soviet Union, that that system was a failure.

  Milton Friedman

  Wall, Fall, Doubt

  Source: www.pbs.org

  7 Copy quote

• The fall of the Berlin Wall did more for the progress of freedom than all of the books written by myself or Friedrich Hayek or others.

  Milton Friedman

  Wall, Book, Fall

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• In a free society, it is hard for 'good' people to do 'good', but that is a small price to pay for making it hard for 'evil' people to do 'evil', especially since one man's good is another's evil

  Milton Friedman

  Men, Evil People, Good People

  Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

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• Everywhere, and at all times, economic progress has meant far more to the poor than to the rich.

  Milton Friedman

  Progress, Rich, Economic

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• As a nation, we have been responsible for the murder of literally hundreds of thousands of people at home and abroad by fighting a war that should never have been started and can be won, if at all, only by converting the United States into a police state.

  Milton Friedman

  War, Home, Fighting

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• So long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

  Milton Friedman

  Games, Long, Competition

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.133, University of Chicago Press

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• What does it mean to say that government might have a responsibility? Government can't have a responsibility any more than the business can. The only entities which can have responsibilities are people.

  Milton Friedman

  Mean, Responsibility, Government

  Milton Friedman (1975). “There's no such thing as a free lunch”, Open Court Publishing Company

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• You mustn't judge a politician by talk. You have to judge them by performance.

  Milton Friedman

  Judging, Politician, Performances

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  5 Copy quote

• I can spend somebody else's money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else's money on somebody else, I'm not concerned about how much it is, and I'm not concerned about what I get. And that's government.

  Milton Friedman

  Government

  Fox News Interview, May 2004.

  4 Copy quote

• The Depression, which started in 1929 was rather mild from 1929 to 1930. And, indeed, in my opinion would have been over in 1931 at the latest had it not been that the Federal Reserve followed a policy which led to bank failures, widespread bank failures, and led to a reduction in the quantity of money.

  Milton Friedman

  Opinion, Reduction, Federal Reserve

  Source: www.pbs.org

  6 Copy quote

• People hired by government know who is their benefactor. People who lose their jobs or fail to get them because of the government program do not know that that is the source of their problem. The good effects are visible. The bad effects are invisible. The good effects generate votes. The bad effects generate discontent, which is as likely to be directed at private business as at the government.

  Milton Friedman

  Jobs, Government, People

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• There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Program, Government Programs

  "Take It To The Limits: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism". Interview with Peter Robinson on "Uncommon Knowledge", www.youtube.com. February 10, 1999.

  7 Copy quote

• Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

  Milton Friedman

  Economics, Economist, Monetary Policy

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.272, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  37 Copy quote

• The major basis for my opposition to marijuana prohibition has not been how badly it's worked, the fact that it's produced much more harm than good - it has been primarily a moral reason: I don't think the state has any more right to tell me what to put into my mouth than it has to tell me what can come out of my mouth.

  Milton Friedman

  Marijuana, Thinking, Mouths

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• There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Buying, Harm

  "Who protects the consumer?". PBS "Free to Choose", episode 7, 1980.

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• Now here's somebody who wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette. If he's caught, he goes to jail. Now is that moral? Is that proper? I think it's absolutely disgraceful that our government, supposed to be our government, should be in the position of converting people who are not harming others into criminals, of destroying their lives, putting them in jail. That's the issue to me. The economic issue comes in only for explaining why it has those effects. But the economic reasons are not the reasons.

  Milton Friedman

  Thinking, Marijuana, Jail

  "Friedman & Szasz On Liberty and Drugs". Interview with Randy Paige on "America's Drug Forum", www.druglibrary.org. 1991.

  8 Copy quote

• The history of mankind is the history of money losing value.

  Milton Friedman

  Losing, Mankind, Values

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• Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what we have done at one time or another to produce surpluses of wheat, of sugar, of butter, of many other commodities. Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, May, Want

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.237, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• ...Only physicians are likely to be regarded as competent to judge the qualifications of potential physicians, so licensing boards in the various states...are typically composed..of physicians,...members of the AMA. The boards, or the state legislatures...give the AMA the power to influence the number of persons admitted to practice (by) lengthy training,...(and) the list of 'approved' schools and hospitals (which) is generally identical with the list issued by the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the AMA.

  Milton Friedman

  School, Dark, Practice

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• The power to determine the quantity of money... is too important, too pervasive, to be exercised by a few people, however public-spirited, if there is any feasible alternative. There is no need for such arbitrary power.

  Milton Friedman

  People, Important, Needs

  Milton Friedman, Kurt R. Leube (1987). “The essence of Friedman”, Hoover Inst Pr

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• It is my view that what is important is cutting government spending, however spending is financed. A so-called deficit is a disguised and hidden form of taxation. The real burden on the public is what government spends (and mandates others to spend). As I have said repeatedly, I would rather have government spend one trillion dollars with a deficit of a half a trillion than have government spend two trillion dollars with no deficit.

  Milton Friedman

  Real, Cutting, Government

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• Freedom means diversity but also mobility. It preserves the opportunity for today's disadvantaged to become tomorrow's privileged and, in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.

  Milton Friedman

  Mean, Opportunity, Diversity

  Milton Friedman (2017). “Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman”, p.127, Hoover Press

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• Unfortunately, unanimity is not always feasible.

  Milton Friedman

  Unanimity

  Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

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• 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.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Thank God, Waste

  Interview with Richard Heffner on "The Open Mind", December 7, 1975.

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• It is taken for granted that workers should receive their pay partly in kind, in the form of medical care provided by the employer. How come? Why single out medical care? Surely food is no less essential to life than medical care. Why is it not at least as logical for workers to be required to buy their food at the company store as to be required to buy their medical care at the company store?

  Milton Friedman

  Taken, Care, Pay

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