Thursday, November 16, 2006
Milton Friedman dies at 94
One of the biggest influences of my academic and political outlooks, Milton Friedman, died today. He was the greatest economist of this century and undoubtedly will go down in history with the likes of Smith, Keynes, and Samuelsson. His influence brought us the prosperities of the 90s and the relative economic stability we experience today.
He also convinced me Libertarianism was the way to go, politically. I read everything he wrote academically, popularly, and watched the television programs he created. In his “Power of the Market” episode I remember when he held up a pencil and said:
“Look at this pencil, there is not a single human being in the world capable of making it. The lead, well it’s actually not lead, it’s graphite, probably out of some mine in Africa. The wood, comes from a tree in the Pacific Northwest. The paint, is mixed in Hong Kong but has ingredients that come from Singapore, Europe, and South America. The metal along the top comes from a mine in the USSR. The rubber that makes the eraser comes from a tree grown in Columbia. Literally thousands of people came together – who have never met each other, who don’t speak the same language, are of different political, religious and social backgrounds – to make this pencil for you to purchase at a trifling sum.
I still, to this day, buy everything he wrote, spoke, and believed (to my friends dismay), notably: “It is the social responsibility of business to make a profit. Public schools are broken, make the private. Capitalism is a necessary condition for freedom.” Etc., etc.,
Farewell, Friedman. Your thoughts will live on forever.
He also convinced me Libertarianism was the way to go, politically. I read everything he wrote academically, popularly, and watched the television programs he created. In his “Power of the Market” episode I remember when he held up a pencil and said:
“Look at this pencil, there is not a single human being in the world capable of making it. The lead, well it’s actually not lead, it’s graphite, probably out of some mine in Africa. The wood, comes from a tree in the Pacific Northwest. The paint, is mixed in Hong Kong but has ingredients that come from Singapore, Europe, and South America. The metal along the top comes from a mine in the USSR. The rubber that makes the eraser comes from a tree grown in Columbia. Literally thousands of people came together – who have never met each other, who don’t speak the same language, are of different political, religious and social backgrounds – to make this pencil for you to purchase at a trifling sum.
I still, to this day, buy everything he wrote, spoke, and believed (to my friends dismay), notably: “It is the social responsibility of business to make a profit. Public schools are broken, make the private. Capitalism is a necessary condition for freedom.” Etc., etc.,
Farewell, Friedman. Your thoughts will live on forever.
# posted by otas : 7:34 PM
