Milton Friedman
Champion of free markets and monetary policy
Most quoted
"The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another."
— from Speech, 1979
"The long-range solution [to high unemployment] is to increase the incentive for ordinary people to save, invest, work, and employ others. We make it costly for employers to employ people, and we subsidize people not to go to work. We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork."
— from Book, 1980
"The government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government tries to do more than this, it creates problems."
— from Interview/Speech
All quotes by Milton Friedman (290)
The only way to have a free and prosperous society is to have a government that is accountable to the people.
The most important thing about a free society is that it allows for innovation.
The only way to have a just society is to have a society where people are treated equally under the law.
The most important thing about government is that it's a necessary evil, but it's an evil that needs to be controlled.
The only way to get rid of poverty is to create a system where people can help themselves.
The most important thing about a stable economy is that it allows for long-term planning.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
The government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government tries to do more than this, it creates problems.
Inflation is taxation without legislation.
The only way to get a good government is to have a small government.
I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.
The only things that are really free are the things that are not worth having.
The most important single central fact about the relation between the government and the economy is that the government has no resources of its own.
The case for free enterprise is not that it is perfect but that it is the best of the available alternatives.
The only way to avoid inflation is to avoid printing money.
The problem is not that people are stupid, it's that they are not free.
The government is not a solution to our problem, the government is the problem.
The only way to make a man honest is to make him rich.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
The most important single central fact about the relation between the government and the economy is the enormous expansion of governmental responsibility for economic activity.
Contemporaries of Milton Friedman
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Milton Friedman (1912–2006).