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“It’s a tragedy that Milton Friedman—born 100 years ago on July 31—did not live long enough to combat the big-government ideas that have formed the core of Obamanomics. It’s perhaps more tragic that our current president, who attended the University of Chicago where Friedman taught for decades, never fell under the influence of the world’s greatest champion of the free market. Imagine how much better things would have turned out, for Mr. Obama and the country. Friedman was a constant presence on these pages until his death in 2006 at age 94. If he could, he would surely be skewering today’s $5 trillion expansion of spending and debt to create growth—and exposing the confederacy of economic dunces urging more of it. In the 1960s, Friedman famously explained that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” If the government spends a dollar, that dollar has to come from producers and workers in the private economy. There is no magical “multiplier effect” by taking from productive Peter and giving to unproductive Paul. As obvious as that insight seems, it keeps being put to the test. Obamanomics may be the most expensive failed experiment in free-lunch economics in American history. Equally illogical is the superstition that government can create prosperity by having Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke print more dollars. In the very short term, Friedman proved, excess money fools people with an illusion of prosperity. But the market quickly catches on, and there is no boost in output, just higher prices. Next to Ronald Reagan, in the second half of the 20th century there was no more influential voice for economic freedom world-wide than Milton Friedman. Small in stature but a giant intellect, he was the economist who saved capitalism by dismembering the ideas of central planning when most of academia was mesmerized by the creed of government as savior.”
I have read a few of Milton Friedman’s books and one that he and his wife collaborated. Friedmans had much common sense and abundance of expertise/intellect in the field of Economics. Friedman explains the exchange of “Money” as far back to the stone age. His expanation that big government is NOT the answer when it comes to people thriving and creating for themselves and using free market concepts. The idea menioned ‘robbing peter to pay paul’ is excellent. The rich man’s money will soon run out from giving to the government that will in turn either pocket that money or spend it foolishly on why the frog croaks – meanwhile the rich become poor, then what? The poor will never become rich because they don’t have the creative juices to produce anything but fornicate and have more mouths to feed; their creative juices and desire to build companies and hire people to help run those companies are simply not there to better the communities they live in. Friedman gives all sorts of scenarios on the use of money and why The Federal Reserve is reluctant to disclose and does not have to disclose or report funds to anyone. The Federal Reserve serves to make government larger and larger. Saying, that Congress has no control over the use of money (Ameican tax dollars) as it once did. So I ask that if Congress does not know how much money is in the coffer, How can they make up a budget without that information? Would not you and I have to know our income before we could make a comprehensive budget? I don’t recall if Friedman wrote this but it does make a lot of sense: “To Destroy a Society, you have to Destroy their money!” Friedman does have solutions on how Capitalism DOES work. Socialism/Communisim does not work and there is no reason to keep trying because only a narsistic being must be at the helm as a dictator for that to happen. It has been proved world wide that Socialism-Communism-Marxism were total failures because one person cannot control the masses, even if they think they can in their sick minds. Majority of People want to be able to use their own minds and have control over their own lives. To depend on Government for ‘everything’ is laziness and ineptness and only allows dictators to have all the wealth of a nation. The Money DOES NOT trickle down under a dictator.