When the Market Closes
This rant was orginially going to be against elitism and the follies of judging people by random factors like race, religion, education level, etc, but instead, this is about something sadder. Economist Milton Friedman died today at the age of 94. Friedman, who is possibly most famous for inventing the expression "There's no such thing as a free lunch". He was the founder and leader of the Chicago school of economics, which dictates that freedom fo choice in the economic markets must be maintained at all costs, as all things will balance out. People making rational choices will, in this theory, get rid parties committing malfeasance (since people don't like corruption) and will reward innovation through dollars. He championed Hong Kong, drug legalization and ending the draft in Vietnam.
Friedman believed, in the way that Pat Robertson believes in Jesus and he can leg press a ton, in the dominance of the free market. He saw the diea of rational choice being the panacea for all economic, social and political ills. He was a classic economist in the sense that he belived that evereything in life revolved around economics, and all political and social choices are economically based and/or motivated. Granted, this view got toned down a little after he saw the Iron Curtain fall and the countries who had no sense of real governance to go along with it all. After seeing the early failures of the Balkan states he said "There needs to be rule of law first". He originally believed that rule of law would come with rational consumer choice, but after seeing the kleptocracy that was Mobutu's Zaire, he had to change his tune a bit. After all, seeing entire industries being subservient to the man with lawyers, guns and money, even after rational choice, it got a little much. Then again, I'm a political animal, so to me, politics trumps all (let's put like this, someone will call themselves in charge; not necessarily call thmselves head of the banking realm).
But, despite all the pressures to the otherwise, he was an ardent and firm believer in the necessity of freedom of markets. One of the biggest areas was in the realm of illegal drugs. He made the very good point that at about 7 billion dollars a year, no one can realistically stop the trade, they can only waste money trying while the government loses possible tax revenues. He was a strong proponent of legalizing drugs and taxing the bejeezus out of them. He also "I never met a tax cut I didn't like." He advocated smaller government, deregulation and generally was the favorite economist of the Libertarian party. Despite this, he was actually a brillaint mind and one of the most influential economists of the past couple hundred years. Reagan listened to some of his economic ideas, although they got turned into trickle down economics, which as a political action was both good and bad.
However, his brightest moment was in a fight with Westmoreland about the nature of volunteer forces and the draft. Friedman was on a commission to investigate ending the draft in 1979. The commission was made up of fifteen people, five who were pro-draft, five who were anti and five who were undecided. Within a year, all fifteen members voted to end the draft. One of the most famous exchanges that came out of the session, according to Commission chair William H. Meckling was the following between Friedman and General William Westmoreland. In his testimony before the commission, Gen. Westmoreland said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Dr. Friedman interrupted, "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?"
Westmoreland replied, "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves."
Friedman then retorted, "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher." It was his understanding that referring to people as anything other than people, we were all losing something in the translation.
And that is the ultimate personal choice of good.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Friedman believed, in the way that Pat Robertson believes in Jesus and he can leg press a ton, in the dominance of the free market. He saw the diea of rational choice being the panacea for all economic, social and political ills. He was a classic economist in the sense that he belived that evereything in life revolved around economics, and all political and social choices are economically based and/or motivated. Granted, this view got toned down a little after he saw the Iron Curtain fall and the countries who had no sense of real governance to go along with it all. After seeing the early failures of the Balkan states he said "There needs to be rule of law first". He originally believed that rule of law would come with rational consumer choice, but after seeing the kleptocracy that was Mobutu's Zaire, he had to change his tune a bit. After all, seeing entire industries being subservient to the man with lawyers, guns and money, even after rational choice, it got a little much. Then again, I'm a political animal, so to me, politics trumps all (let's put like this, someone will call themselves in charge; not necessarily call thmselves head of the banking realm).
But, despite all the pressures to the otherwise, he was an ardent and firm believer in the necessity of freedom of markets. One of the biggest areas was in the realm of illegal drugs. He made the very good point that at about 7 billion dollars a year, no one can realistically stop the trade, they can only waste money trying while the government loses possible tax revenues. He was a strong proponent of legalizing drugs and taxing the bejeezus out of them. He also "I never met a tax cut I didn't like." He advocated smaller government, deregulation and generally was the favorite economist of the Libertarian party. Despite this, he was actually a brillaint mind and one of the most influential economists of the past couple hundred years. Reagan listened to some of his economic ideas, although they got turned into trickle down economics, which as a political action was both good and bad.
However, his brightest moment was in a fight with Westmoreland about the nature of volunteer forces and the draft. Friedman was on a commission to investigate ending the draft in 1979. The commission was made up of fifteen people, five who were pro-draft, five who were anti and five who were undecided. Within a year, all fifteen members voted to end the draft. One of the most famous exchanges that came out of the session, according to Commission chair William H. Meckling was the following between Friedman and General William Westmoreland. In his testimony before the commission, Gen. Westmoreland said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. Dr. Friedman interrupted, "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?"
Westmoreland replied, "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves."
Friedman then retorted, "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher." It was his understanding that referring to people as anything other than people, we were all losing something in the translation.
And that is the ultimate personal choice of good.
So it is written, so do I see it.