Milton Friedman Quotes - Page 7

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• Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.

  Milton Friedman

  Exercise, Men, Hands

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.2, University of Chicago Press

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• The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.

  Milton Friedman

  Statistics, Tests, Predictions

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

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• In a bureaucratic system, useless work drives out useful work.

  Milton Friedman

  Useless

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

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• Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?

  Milton Friedman

  Self, Political, Economic

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• If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough.

  Milton Friedman

  Cutting, Government, Politics

  "Milton Friedman's Last Lunch" by Mark Skousen, www.forbes.com. November 24, 2006.

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• I think a major reason why intellectuals tend to move towards collectivism is that the collectivist answer is a simple one. If there's something wrong, pass a law and do something about it.

  Milton Friedman

  Moving, Simple, Thinking

  Milton Friedman (2017). “Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman”, p.65, Hoover Press

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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.

  Milton Friedman

  Army, Two, Liberty

  Milton Friedman (2017). “Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman”, p.28, Hoover Press

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• Whenever we depart from voluntary cooperation and try to do good by using force, the bad moral value of force triumphs over good intentions.

  Milton Friedman

  Trying, Liberty, Triumph

  Milton Friedman, William Richard Allen (1983). “Bright promises, dismal performance: an economist's protest”, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.

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• So long as large sums of money are involved - and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal - it is literally impossible to stop the traffic, or even to make a serious reduction in its scope.

  Milton Friedman

  Long, Drug, Serious

  Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman (1985). “Tyranny of the status quo”

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• The future of private enterprise capitalism is also the future of a free society. There is no possibility of having a politically free society unless the major part of its economic resources are operated under a capitalistic private enterprise system.

  Milton Friedman

  Economic, Possibility, Resources

  Milton Friedman (1978). “Tax limitation, inflation and the role of government”, Fisher Inst

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• 

  Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

  Milton Friedman

  Perfectly Good, Government, Ink And Paper

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• Central bankers always try to avoid their last big mistake. So every time there's the threat of a contraction in the economy, they'll over stimulate the economy, by printing too much money. The result will be a rising roller coaster of inflation, with each high and low being higher than the preceding one.

  Milton Friedman

  Mistake, Trying, Bankers

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• The great virtue of free enterprise is that it forces existing businesses to meet the test of the market continuously, to produce products that meet consumer demands at lowest cost, or else be driven from the market. It is a profit-and-loss system. Naturally, existing businesses generally prefer to keep out competitors in other ways. That is why the business community, despite its rhetoric, has so often been a major enemy of truly free enterprise.

  Milton Friedman

  Business, Loss, Community

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• Saying it is one thing. Doing it is very different.

  Milton Friedman

  Different, One Thing

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• Is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed?

  Milton Friedman

  Running, Thinking, Russia

  "The Phil Donahue Show", www.youtube.com. 1979.

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• We do not influence the course of events by persuading people that we are right when we make what they regard as radical proposals. Rather, we exert influence by keeping options available when something has to be done at a time of crisis.

  Milton Friedman

  People, Events, Times Of Crisis

  Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman (1999). “Two Lucky People: Memoirs”, p.220, University of Chicago Press

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• Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit.

  Milton Friedman

  Party, Keys, Long

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.19, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Business corporations in general are not defenders of free enterprise. On the contrary, they are one of the
  chief sources of danger....Every businessman is in favor of freedom for everybody else, but when it comes to himself that's a different question. We have to have that tariff to protect us against competition from abroad. We have to have that special provision in the tax code. We have to have that subsidy.

  Milton Friedman

  Competition, Special, Different

  "Defaming Milton Friedman" by Johan Norberg, reason.com. October 2008.

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• The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.

  Milton Friedman

  People, Way, Solve

  "Why it isn't Necessary to 'Throw the Bums Out'". Milton Friedman's speech about changing Congress, www.youtube.com. circa 1977.

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• Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. It is made by or stopped by the central bank.

  Milton Friedman

  Made, Phenomenon, Inflation

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• When something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to say, "By God, we need to pass a law and do something."

  Milton Friedman

  Law, Needs, Natural

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• If even a small fraction of the money we now spend on trying to enforce drug prohibition were devoted to treatment and drug rehabilitation, in an atmosphere of compassion not punishment, the reduction in drug usage and in the harm done to users could be dramatic.

  Milton Friedman

  Compassion, Punishment, Drug

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• Why is it that private insurance companies are not in trouble because people are getting older? Aren't they subject to the same demographics? The difference is that they've accumulated a fund, not a pay-in, pay-out system.

  Milton Friedman

  Differences, People, Getting Older

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• The broader and more influential organisations of businessmen have acted to undermine the basic foundation of the free market system they purport to represent and defend.

  Milton Friedman

  Foundation, Influential, Businessman

  Milton Friedman (1984). “The suicidal impulse of the business community”

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• Had drugs been decriminalized, crack would never have been invented and there would today be fewer addicts... The ghettos would not be drug-and-crime-infested no-man's lands... Colombia, Bolivia and Peru would not be suffering from narco-terror, and we would not be distorting our foreign policy because of it.

  Milton Friedman

  Ghetto, Men, Land

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