Milton Friedman at 100
On the centennial of Milton Friedman's birth, I offer one statement and one story to illustrate the essence of the man.
The statement, taken from the introduction to a Hoover Digest paying tribute to his legacy shortly after his death:
“The great man or woman in history,” Sidney Hook, the late philosopher and Hoover fellow, argued in his classic study, The Hero in History, “is someone of whom we can say . . . that if they had not lived when they did, or acted as they did, the history of their countries and of the world . . . would have been profoundly different.”
Milton Friedman, who by the time of his death at 94 this past November had seen the United States, China, India, and nations in Latin America and Eastern Europe embrace his principles of free markets and human liberty, met Hook's criterion. Milton transformed the history of the world.
The story, illustrating his powers of perception, comes from a 2008 Forbes column:
Over dinner with Milton Friedman several years before he died, I offered the great man a compliment. He refused it.
I had just re-read God and Man at Yale, the 1951 book in which William F. Buckley Jr., denounced the leftist attitudes he had encountered among the Yale faculty and administration as an undergraduate. Buckley singled out the department of economics as the most collectivist department on the campus. "Today," I said, "nobody would call the economics department at a major university 'collectivist.'"
Academia as a whole may have continued its long, sorry wobble to the left, I continued, but the economics profession had proved an exception, moving the other way. Departments of economics across the country now grasped the importance of free markets. "Mises, Hayek, Stigler and you," I told Friedman. "You've transformed the intellectual climate. You've won."
Friedman shook his head. "We may have won the intellectual battle," he replied, "but in practical politics, it's difficult to see that we've had any effect at all."
Government spending had continued to grow, he explained. After a pause during the Reagan years, regulations had once again proliferated. For a moment, Friedman grew silent. Then he looked at me.
"The challenge for my generation," he said, "was to provide an intellectual defense of liberty. The challenge for your generation is to keep it."
How right he was. Milton Friedman at 100: more relevant than ever.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
What leftists don't understand is, a head of household's first duty (to their neighbors) is to support themselves and support their family, financially, because if they don't, the burden falls on those neighbors who are already busy supporting their own families. And that burden doesn't get lighter--it gets heavier--if the burden is delegated to an impersonal and inefficient government agency. So, if you really want to demonstrate love for your neighbor, don't pick his pocket, and don't get someone in government to do it for you. Instead, participate in the free market to fill your own pocket.
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
Thanks Peter! Several dozen times during my academic career, when I've faced difficult decisions, I've asked myself, "What would Milton Friedman do?" The answer usually proves to be wise advice.
Dec '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
Our friends at Powerline linked (second video) to this wonderful performance by the Milton Friedman Choir. My sides hurt.
Apr '12
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
CJRun, a choir? I have got my son watching Milton on YouTube and there is one video where Michael Moore asks about the car industry. My son marveled at Milton's ability to answer people who were angry or frustrated. I liked his video on how a pencil is made by so many countries and their products.
Aug '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
Friedman's death was a great loss for free markets. He was a towering figure who had the gravitas to speak out and be heard, along with the sunny demeanor and work ethic needed to be effective as a public spokesman for capitalism.
His death (and the death of William F. Buckley) resulted in the right losing its standard-bearers. We still haven't replaced them. The result has been fragmentation, intellectual inconsistency and incoherence from Republican leaders, and the return of the constant drift to the left of society and government.
We need a new Friedman. An economist of stature, with a gentle demeanor and an easy smile, yet with the tenacious grip of a bulldog in the face of opposition.
We need a new Buckley - a leader on the right who can espouse conservative principles with a high level of class and erudition - someone who can take on the leading intellectuals of the left on their own turf and dismantle their arguments with fact, wit, and grace. Instead, we have a host of populists and 'plain talkers', you betcha.
Who is going to take their place? Can anyone recommend some candidates?
Dec '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
Personally, I recommend Dan Hanson. The passings of Friedman and Buckley were signposts, letting us know that it was time for us to stop depending upon leaders to order our society.
I can't imagine us being in a position of having to coronate successors, when all they were trying to teach us was that the true collective good was achieved by individuals, pursuing their self interests.
Pursue! Refuse to be "guided"! Be free!
Aug '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
I said we need someone with Gravitas. My big claim to fame is that I once managed to eat a whole bag of Cheetos without getting cheezy stains on my shirt.
May '10
Re: Milton Friedman at 100
Inexplicably, I welled up after reading this line from Peter's Hoover link:
Beautiful testament to a shared life of love and purpose.