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Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman Quotes

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Famous Milton Friedman Quotes

“Every friend of freedom... must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.”

StatesUnitedLibertyVisionUnited StatesCitizensDrugEvidenceArmyFilledLibertarianAlcoholJailCampsUsersLibertarianismEmpoweredCasualFreedom And LibertyProhibitionFreedom LibertyDrug ProhibitionArmed Citizens
Author:Milton Friedman
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“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”

PeopleWantDoeHelpingCareHatePoliticsDealsLibertyVirtueProduceColorEconomicsLibertarianCommunismLibertarianismFree MarketGreat LibertarianFree Market Capitalism
Author:Milton Friedman
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“The key insight of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.”

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Book:Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
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“Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion - the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals - the technique of the marketplace.”

WayTwoStatesUseIndividualLibertyMillionsEconomicModernActivityEconomicsArmyLibertarianTechniqueCooperationLibertarianismFree MarketMarketplaceCoercionTwo WaysInvolvingIndividual LibertyTotalitarian StateCoordinating
Book:Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman
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“Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to advance the frontiers of his discipline, the missionary seeking to convert infidels to the true faith, the philanthropist seeking to bring comfort to the needy - all are pursuing their interests, as they see them, as they judge them by their own values.”

SelfValuesGoalInterestLibertyEconomicJudgingDisciplineComfortScientistSeekingLibertarianPursueSelfishnessMissionaryLibertarianismFrontiersSelf InterestParticipantsNeedyInfidelPhilanthropistTrue FaithMyopic
Book:Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
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“The high rate of unemployment among teenagers, and especially black teenagers, is both a scandal and a serious source of social unrest. Yet it is largely a result of minimum wage laws. We regard the minimum wage law as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures, as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline.”

Has BeensImportantStatesGovernmentLossUnitedLibertyUnited StatesEconomicIndustryLetting GoCapitalismMiracleProfitLibertarianPlanningEnterpriseWeedDeclineLibertarianismFree MarketStagnationPrivate EnterpriseFosteringCartelsProfit And LossCentralized Government
Author:Milton Friedman
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“Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense of love and duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else's parents out of compulsion and fear. The voluntary transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken those bonds.”

YoungSocialParentLibertySupportSecurityDutyEconomicsLibertarianLibertarianismSocial SecurityCompulsionTransfersCompulsory
Book:Bright Promises, Dismal Performance: An Economist's Protest
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“When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it. When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on. When a man spends someone else's money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn't care at all how much he spends. And when a man spends someone else's money on someone else, he does't care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that's government for you.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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