Money is a very powerful thing, which you hardly notice when it goes right, but which can create havoc when it goes wrong. Milton Friedman More Quotes by Milton Friedman More Quotes From Milton Friedman Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. Milton Friedman monetary-policy economist economics Inflation is taxation without legislation. Milton Friedman taxation conservative money If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough. Milton Friedman cutting politics government The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom. Milton Friedman freedom together people Now here's somebody who wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette. If he's caught, he goes to jail. Now is that moral? Is that proper? I think it's absolutely disgraceful that our government, supposed to be our government, should be in the position of converting people who are not harming others into criminals, of destroying their lives, putting them in jail. That's the issue to me. The economic issue comes in only for explaining why it has those effects. But the economic reasons are not the reasons. Milton Friedman marijuana jail thinking If you really want to engage in policy activity, don't make that your vocation. Make it your avocation. Get a job. Get a secure base of income. Otherwise, you're going to get corrupted and destroyed. Milton Friedman income political jobs Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest? Milton Friedman economic political self There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves. Milton Friedman harm government buying Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. Milton Friedman neoliberalism real change The argument for collectivism is simple if false; it is an immediate emotional argument. The argument for individualism is subtle and sophisticated; it is an indirect rational argument. And the emotional faculties are more highly developed in most men than the rational, paradoxically or especially even in those who regard themselves as intellectuals. Milton Friedman emotional simple men . . . it is worth discussing radical changes, not in the expectation that they will be adopted promptly but for two other reasons. One is to construct an ideal goal, so that incremental changes can be judged by whether they move the institutional structure toward or away from that ideal. The other reason is very different. It is so that if a crisis requiring or facilitating radical change does arise, alternatives will be available that have been carefully developed and fully explored. Milton Friedman change two moving I cannot disagree with you that having something like 500 economists is extremely unhealthy. As you say, it is not conducive to independent, objective research. You and I know there has been censorship of the material published. Equally important, the location of the economists in the Federal Reserve has had a significant influence on the kind of research they do, biasing that research toward noncontroversial technical papers on method as opposed to substantive papers on policy and results Milton Friedman independent political important 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. Milton Friedman jail army alcohol If we have system in which government is in a position to give large favor - it's human nature to try to get this favor - whether those people are large enterprises, or whether they're small businesses like farmers, or whether they're representatives of any other special group. The only way to prevent that is to force them to engage in competition one with the other. Milton Friedman government giving people 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 triumph liberty trying Every economist knows that minimum wages either do nothing or cause inflation and unemployment. That's not a statement, it's a definition. Milton Friedman investing unemployment wages I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintainence of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind. It requires a willingness to put up with temporary evils on the basis of the subtle and sophisticated understanding that if you step in to do something about them you not only may make them worse, you will spread your tenticles and get bad results elsewhere. Milton Friedman self evil people For example, the supporters of tariffs treat it as self-evident that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of itself, regardless of what the persons employed do. That is clearly wrong. If all we want are jobs, we can create any number--for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up again, or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward. Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real objective is not just jobs but productive jobs--jobs that will mean more goods and services to consume. Milton Friedman real jobs mean You can only make money if you buy a product, whatever it is - maybe a currency, maybe wheat and maybe something else - at a relatively low price and sell it at a higher price than you buy it at. There's no other way to make money. Milton Friedman making-money wheat way History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. Milton Friedman capitalism political history
