Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I'm a little cross just now with Ricochet contributor King Banaian.
You see, just last month King, who teaches economics at St. Cloud State and sits in the Minnesota legislature, delivered a brilliant talk on the legacy of Milton Friedman. But did King tell us about it here at Ricochet? Did he describe the event? Did he post excerpts? Oh, no. He most certainly did not. You'd only know about the talk if you happened to read a comment King put up yesterday, then clicked on a link he placed in parentheses--in parentheses! I quote:
Capitalism is dynamic indeed, but its survival depends either on freedom being a stable equilibrium (which Milton Friedman doubted, by the way, see the end of this talk I gave last month) or by it finding champions to correct the course it is on.
Well, I did click to see the talk King delivered, and it is, as I say, just brilliant. King reviews the massive evidence from the twentieth century that Milton Friedman was right--that is, that free markets work. King describes the rise of Hong Kong, the enormous disparities between the free West and the Communist East in post-war central Europe, and the way Friedman's advice enabled Chile to defeat inflation, and promote growth, developing the healthiest, most versatile economy in Latin America.
Think a moment, please, about the following fact. In Asia and in particular in China and India, a middle class is developing that rivals in size and significance the first middle class formation of Europe in the early 19th Century. There are now more members of the bourgeoisie that call Asia home than they do America and Europe combined. 57% of the world now lives with middle class incomes, compared to only 1/3rd in 1980. Whom should they thank? Who should China thank for the decline in poverty there: the World Bank and the IMF? Or Wal-Mart?
King closes with a stern--indeed frightening--warning from Friedman himself:
This is perhaps the most important quote of Friedman...the imperative that keeps us working to keep free markets and Milton Friedman’s birthday remembered as long as we breathe.
"There's a strong argument to be made [Friedman said] that a free society is a fundamentally unstable equilibrium, in the language of the natural sciences....we may regret this but we've got to face up to the facts....How often and for how long have we had free societies? For short periods of time. There was an essentially free society in 5th-century Greece. Was it able to survive? It disappeared. Every other time when there's been a free society, it has tended to disappear."
We [to]...understand that [we] can go backwards as well as forward. He did. And to keep his work remembered for the next 25-50 years, so should we.
If King Banaian is too modest to give his talk the attention it deserves here on Ricochet, I'm not. Fascinating, informative--and a call to arms. Read it for yourself.
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Oct '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Read this along with Mark Steyn's After America and keep nearby whatever it is you use to stave off depression.
Mar '11
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Peter thank you for sharing Mr. Banaian's speech, and more importantly, thank you Mr. Banaian for giving it.
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I just mailed a private thanks to Peter after Diane pointed me to this. I was a 22-year-old grad student when Free To Choose came out, but I didn't get to watch it then because I didn't have a working TV. Many of the scenes in my talk were inspired by scenes the Friedmans had filmed for it. If you should watch the videos now, be sure to add their memoir Two Lucky People and get the story of how F2C came to be. It adds value to the viewing.
So public thanks to Peter, and to the Friedmans for the enormous gifts of insight they have given.
Jun '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Interesting fact:
King Banaian won his District 15B Minnesota State House race 5480 votes to 5467 votes, and fortunately, Franken's election lawyers weren't available to work for Banaian's opponent that month.
May '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I'm anxious to get into King's speech, and I'm currently winding my way through Friedman's books at a pathetically slow pace. However, in light of King's reference to the Free to Choose episodes, I want to include this link which posts the episodes for free viewing. I'm planning to dive in.
May '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Great speech, King!
A little further into Milton Friedman's response to Phil Donohue's "greed" question, Friedman points out that politicians act in their own self interest just as capitalists do.
The difference is that everyone knows where the capitalist stands, whereas Statist politicians often cloak their true motives in do-gooderism rhetoric to "protect the little people". Of course, this often does nothing of the sort. Consequences, unintended or not, squeeze out in all directions of these top down mandates. And these would-be puppeteers' response is to create more of the same - bastardizing the markets even further which underscores their premise that markets cannot be trusted. And the cycle of political greed continues.
It's no wonder free markets - and free societies - are constantly under assault.
May '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I was Sales Director of the first company to be privatized by the Chicago Boys (Goodyear Chile) at the time of Pinochet's hand over to Democratic govt. The difference between Chile and the rest of the continent was (and largely remains) simply amazing. The 80s was known in Latin America as the Lost Decade. The only exception to this was Chile. After over 50 years of living abroad, the country remains one of my very favorite corners of the world.
The "unstable equilibreum" is especially insightful in light of the our situation in the USA today. Fantastic speech!
Nov '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
The suggestion that a free society is a "fundamentally unstable equilibrium” reminds me of this quote from Robert Heinlein:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
— Lazarus Long in Time Enough For Love (1973), by Robert Heinlein.
Obama recently attempted to blame his feckless economic policies on “bad luck.”
Edited on Aug 27, 2011 at 8:55pmDec '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Inspired by reading the speech, I just watched two hours of Milton Friedman on the Phil Donahue show. Best two hours of my weekend.
May '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I recall sending a message to Ricochet management more than a year ago recommending that they talk to King about being resident economist contributor. I sort of pretend to take credit for his presence here whether or not that's how he actually came.
May '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Gasp! Out of the corner of my eye I read the title of this post as "the Socialist Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said". What a relief to find out I was mistaken.
Sep '10
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
I appreciate Banaian’s posts which are always clear, reasoned and concise. His emphases of Friedman’s points that Keynesianism is fundamentally interventionism and that freedom is fragile are important. Since 1988 every administration has followed Keynesian policies which has resulted in an unprecedented amount of debt, most of which is not formally acknowledged. The $15T. is merely the tip of the iceberg. The financial costs are dwarfed by the social and moral costs as Marco Rubio alluded to in his most recent speech. The fragility of freedom may become much more apparent for I believe the problem is not the lack of sound policies which could be followed, but the lack of honesty and courage it takes to follow them. As Mr. Banaian and his cohorts have demonstrated it is not an easy task.
Re: Our Modest King, Or the Scariest Thing Milton Friedman Ever Said
Ducatista, thanks for sourcing the Heinlein, I never did figure out where that came from. I have often used instead Julian Simon, the beginning of whose essay deserves a quote as well:
"More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment", Economic Affairs, April, 1994.