Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible. Milton Friedman More Quotes by Milton Friedman More Quotes From Milton Friedman Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. Milton Friedman market-efficiency regulation government 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. Milton Friedman color hate people Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. Milton Friedman libertarian liberty freedom We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork. Milton Friedman lazy liberty society Because it is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both. If you have a welfare state, if you have a state in which every resident is promises a certain minimal level of income, or a minimum level of subsistence, regardless of whether he works or not, produces it or not. Then it really is an impossible thing. Milton Friedman impossible-things jobs promise One role of prohibition is in making the drug market more lucrative. Milton Friedman corruption drug roles Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another. Milton Friedman pie liberty party There's no point in comparing an actual, operating system with an ideal system that doesn't exist. Milton Friedman operating-systems compare ideals The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way. Milton Friedman government self running If you cannot state a proposition clearly and unambiguously, you do not understand it. Milton Friedman propositions states ifs You must distinguish sharply between being pro free enterprise and being pro business. Milton Friedman free-enterprise enterprise Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government. Milton Friedman cynical political government What works for Sweden wouldn't work for France or Germany or Italy. In a small state, you can reach outside for many of your activities. In a homogeneous culture, they are willing to pay higher taxes in order to achieve commonly held goals. But "common goals" are much harder to come by in larger, more heterogeneous populations. Milton Friedman population goal order You know there are very few Marxists left in the world... they're all in American universities. Milton Friedman economic america world With respect to teachers' salaries .... Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid. Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority. Milton Friedman salary schedules teacher The unions might be good for the people who are in the unions but it doesn't do a thing for the people who are unemployed. Because the union keeps down the number of jobs, it doesn't do a thing for them. Milton Friedman numbers jobs people 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. Milton Friedman japan numbers europe Higher taxes never reduce the deficit. Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with. Milton Friedman get-away taxes government Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Milton Friedman libertarian liberty government The problem in this world is to avoid concentration of power - we must have a dispersion of power. Milton Friedman concentration problem world
