A great speech below:
Here are the myths:Robber Baron Myth, The Cause of Great Depression Myth, The Demand for Government Service Myth, The Free Lunch Smith, and The Robin Hood Myth.
Sunday Reader: Milton Friedman’s “Five Myths That Conceal Reality”
Milton Friedman is one of the most influential thinkers of the last 100 years. He stood in opposition to The Loud Left, but then a lot of people did. His opinions alone are not what made him great. What made him potent and unique is that he was a great teacher. He spoke with a clarity and substance than exposed the rhetoric of The Left for the shallow, muddled logic it truly is.
I had the pleasure of hearing Milton speak at a university where I was lecturing. He took on all comers after his talk, and the braver (or more suicidal) of the faculty challenged him. In his gentle way he eviscerated every one of them; reduced them to silence, lost in the clutter and tangle of their socialist contradictions.
This YouTube below is long; almost an hour. In the age of Twitter and IM and the hieroglyphs of text messages, of short attention spans and shorter tempers and bumper sticker politics, perhaps long, thoughtful statements of philosophy have no place anymore. OTOH, if you’ve never heard Milton speak at length, you have been deprived of exposure to one of the great thinkers and teachers, a deprivation this YouTube will correct.
Spend a few minutes here, with Milton. Especially if you get your daily news and political wisdom from those deep economic thinkers John Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central, you literally need Milton more than you know. Obama’s rhetorical nonsense and Joe Biden’s mental lapses, the entirety of Keynesian dogma, will never sound the same to you again.
Milton begins: “As you are all aware, there has been a drastic shift in public attitudes public opinion in the past fifty years or so, with respect to the role of the individual on the one hand and the role of government and collective institutions on the other.”
“There has been a shift in the philosophy and attitudes of the public from a belief in individual responsibility, from a belief in a society in which the role of government was as an umpire, to a belief in a society in which the emphasis is on social responsibility and the role of government as Big Brother and protector of the individual. As always when such shifts arise in public opinion, they are largely produced and reinforced by the development of myths about prior experience.”
“Somebody wrote that a myth is like an air mattress: there’s nothing in it, but it’s wonderfully comfortable, and deflation causes an uncomfortable jolt. My purpose today is to give you that jolt.”
Related posts:
“Friedman Friday” Milton Friedman – Power of Choice (Biography) Part 3
Milton Friedman – Power of Choice (Biography) Part 3 Published on May 21, 2012 by BasicEconomics Tribute to Milton Friedman English Pages, 8. 9. 2008 Dear colleagues, dear friends, (1) It is a great honor for me to be asked to say a few words to this distinguished and very knowledgeable audience about one of our greatest […]
“Friedman Friday” Milton Friedman – Power of Choice (Biography) Part 2
Milton Friedman – Power of Choice (Biography) Part 2 Published on May 21, 2012 by BasicEconomics My Tribute to Milton Friedman: The Little Giant of Free Market Economics By: admin- 11/17/2006 09:49 AM RESIZE: AAA Milton Friedman, the intellectual architect of the free-market reforms of the post-World War II era, was a dear friend. I […]
“Friedman Friday” Milton Friedman – Power of Choice – Biography (Part 1)
Milton Friedman – Power of Choice – Biography (Part 1) Published on May 20, 2012 by BasicEconomics David R. Henderson The Pursuit of Happiness ~ Milton Friedman: A Personal Tribute May 2007 • Volume: 57 • Issue: 4 David Henderson (davidrhenderson1950@gmail.com) is a research fellow with the Hoover Institution and an economics professor at […]
Milton Friedman’s Chicago Boys started the Chilean Miracle and it is still helping ordinary people today!!!
Milton Friedman and Chile – The Power of Choice Uploaded on May 13, 2011 In this excerpt from Free To Choose Network’s “The Power of Choice (2006)”, we set the record straight on Milton Friedman’s dealings with Chile — including training the Chicago Boys and his meeting with Augusto Pinochet. Was the tremendous prosperity unleashed […]
Margaret Thatcher admired Milton Friedman
RARE Friedman Footage – On Keys to Reagan and Thatcher’s Success Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman were two of my heroes. Thatcher praises Friedman, her freedom fighter By George Jones, Political Editor 12:01AM GMT 17 Nov 2006 A tireless champion of the free market Let’s not get misty eyed over the Friedman legacy Milton Friedman, […]
Milton Friedman and Chile an update
Milton Friedman was a great economist and a fine speaker. ___________________ I have written before about Milton Friedman’s influence on the economy of Chile. Now I saw this fine article below from http://www.heritage.org and below that article I have included an article from the Wall Street Journal that talks about Milton Friedman’s influence on Chile. I […]
“Friedman Friday” Milton Friedman explains negative income tax to William F. Buckley in 1968
December 06, 2011 03:54 PM Milton Friedman Explains The Negative Income Tax – 1968 0 comments By Gordonskene enlarge Milton Friedman and friends.DOWNLOADS: 36 PLAYS: 35 Embed The age-old question of Taxes. In the early 1960′s Economist Milton Friedman adopted an idea hatched in England in the 1950′s regarding a Negative Income Tax, to […]
Milton Friedman admired Margaret Thatcher
RARE Friedman Footage – On Keys to Reagan and Thatcher’s Success Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman were two of my heroes. Milton Friedman on How Francois Mitterrand (and Failed Lefty Economics) Helped Re-elect Margaret Thatcher Matt Welch|Apr. 10, 2013 9:37 am Yesterday I wrote a column about how Margaret Thatcher liberated Western Europe from the […]
Milton Friedman had a solution to today’s welfare mentality!!!
I have written about the tremendous increase in the food stamp program the last 9 years before and that means that both President Obama and Bush were guilty of not trying to slow down it’s growth. Furthermore, Republicans have been some of the biggest supporters of the food stamp program. Milton Friedman had a […]
“Friedman Friday” Milton Friedman on “Firing Line” in 1968
Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan And William F. Buckley Jr. Peter Robinson, 12.12.08, 12:01 AM EST In a time of crisis, don’t forget what they had to say. As the federal deficit surpasses $1 trillion, Congress debates a bailout for the Detroit automakers and President-elect Barack Obama draws up plans for a vast new stimulus package, […]
The Daily Hatch 