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 effective way to protect the consumer is to preserve and strengthen competition.
The problem is not to find good people to run the system; the problem is to find a system that will make bad people do good things.
The most important human act is the act of choice.
The case for free trade is not a case for the rich against the poor. It is a case for the poor against the rich.
Competition is a tough weed, but it is a healthy one.
The only way to get a good education is to pay for it.
The great virtue of a free market is that it permits an extraordinary diversity of views and tastes to be expressed and satisfied, rather than being forced into a single mold.
Government is a necessary evil, but it is an evil nonetheless.
The most important thing is to have a strong belief in individual liberty.
The market is a far more efficient allocator of resources than any government bureaucrat.
Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.
The only way to achieve prosperity is through free markets and limited government.
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
The government's role is to protect individual liberty, not to provide for individual welfare.
The most important thing a government can do is to get out of the way.
The only way to reduce poverty is to create wealth, and the only way to create wealth is through free markets.
The free market is the most effective mechanism for social cooperation.
The ultimate source of power is the individual.
The only way to achieve true equality is through equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
The government is not a solution to our problems; the government is the problem.
Contemporaries of Milton Friedman
Other Economicss born within 50 years of Milton Friedman (1912–2006).