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Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman Quotes

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Famous Milton Friedman Quotes

“The only reason there is a crisis about Social Security in the US and pensions in Europe and Japan is that you cannot maintain a "Ponzi" scheme indefinitely. We have collected from today's young to pay today's old and counted on tomorrow's young to keep doing so. That was a fine scheme as long as the number of young people was rising faster than old people. When that ratio comes to an end, such a system also has to end.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“The important issue is not how much inequality there is but how much opportunity there is for individuals to get out of the bottom classes and into the top. If there is enough movement upward, people will accept the efficiency of the markets. If you have opportunity, there is a great tolerance for inequality. That has been the saving grace of the American system.”

PeopleIfsHas BeensImportantEnoughOpportunityIndividualAcceptingClassIssuesGraceMovementBottomToleranceInequalitySavingEfficiencyImportant IssuesSaving Grace
Author:Milton Friedman
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“Speeches by businessmen on social responsibility...may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked.... There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to...engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“The rule of law does not guarantee freedom, since general law as well as personal edicts can be tyrannical. But increasing reliance on the rule of law clearly played a major role in transforming Western society from a world in which the ordinary citizen was literally subject to the arbitrary will of his master to a world in which the ordinary citizen could regard himself as his own master”

WorldWellsDoeLawRolesSubjectsMastersCitizensMajorsOrdinaryRegardWesternGuaranteesArbitraryRelianceTransformingRule Of LawWestern SocietyOrdinary Citizens
Book:There's no such thing as a free lunch
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“Plato assumes somehow that government is a way in which you put unselfish and ungreedy men in charge of selfish and greedy men. But government is an institution whereby the people who have the greatest drive to get power over their fellow men, get in a position of controlling them. Look at the record of government. Where are these philosopher kings that Plato supposedly was trying to develop?”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“If capitalism worked as the socialists think an economic system ought to work, and provided a constant equality of living conditions for all, regardless of whether a man was able or not, resourceful or not, diligent or not, thrifty or not, if capitalism put no premiums on resourcefulness and effort and not penalty on idleness or vice, it would produce only an equality of destitution.”

IfsThinkingMenAbleEffortEconomicConditionsProduceOughtCapitalismConstantVicesPenaltiesIdlenessDiligentEconomic SystemsResourcefulResourcefulnessThriftyLiving Conditions
Author:Milton Friedman
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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.”

MeanTodayOpportunityProcessEnjoyTomorrowDiversityBottomPreservesPrivilegedMobilityDisadvantaged
Book:Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman
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“A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives. It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing others. It does not prevent some people from achieving positions of privilege, but so long as freedom is maintained, it prevents those positions of privilege from becoming institutionalized; they are subject to continued attack by other able, ambitious people.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“Doing good with other people's money has two basic flaws. In the first place, you never spend anybody else's money as carefully as you spend your own. So a large fraction of that money is inevitably wasted. In the second place, and equally important, you cannot do good with other people's money unless you first get the money away from them. So that force - sending a policeman to take the money from somebody's pocket - is fundamentally at the basis of the philosophy of the welfare state.”

PeopleFirstsTwoImportantStatesPhilosophyForceBasesWelfarePocketsFlawsPolicemenDoing GoodFractionsWelfare StateSecond Place
Book:Tax limitation, inflation and the role of government
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