{"id":2799,"date":"2016-11-15T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2016-11-15T22:19:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T05:19:16","slug":"the-father-of-capitalism-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/2016\/11\/15\/the-father-of-capitalism-and-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Father of Capitalism and Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Milton Friedman, who received the 1976\u00a0Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences\u00a0for his research on\u00a0consumption\u00a0analysis,\u00a0monetary\u00a0history and theory, and the complexity of\u00a0stabilization policy<\/a>, came up as a relevant figure in the past weeks. He is the father of the \u201claissez faire\u201d libertarian mindset that challenges what he regards as \u201cnaive Keynesian\u201d theory. Keynes was by no means a leftist and some would even say he came to save capitalism with his theory that free markets could not be counted on to provide full employment, later creating new rationale for large-scale government intervention in the economy.<\/p>\n

Friedman is remembered by his passionate belief that people should be truly free to choose their course without the heavy hand of government interference, he argued that this freedom would be the surest way forward to create opportunity and rising prosperity for all.<\/p>\n

In his prime he was an advisor to the Republican president Ronald Reagan, and conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His views also align\u00a0with Adam Smith\u2019s invisible hand.<\/p>\n

In his 1962 book\u00a0Capitalism and Freedom<\/em>, Friedman advocated policies such as a\u00a0volunteer military, freely\u00a0floating exchange rates, abolition of\u00a0medical licenses, a\u00a0negative income tax, and\u00a0school vouchers.<\/p>\n

It is clear that the majority of the world judges its political leaders on what is easiest and most available to them \u2013 character. Although sometimes a judgment of character can say a lot about someone\u2019s future actions, this way of thinking can blind people from seeing the bigger picture. For example, although Friedman identified as a republican, he was also a supporter of gay rights.<\/p>\n

Policy choices will ultimately affect the average American exponentially more than a candidate\u2019s personal history, likes, and dislikes.<\/p>\n

Although most economics textbooks focus primarily on Keynesian economics, there is a lot than can be learned from Friedman\u2019s way of thinking<\/a>– whether it works or doesn\u2019t work in all cases. Some of Friedman\u2019s most famous words; \u201cGovernments never learn\u201d may be especially relevant today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milton Friedman, who received the 1976\u00a0Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences\u00a0for his research on\u00a0consumption\u00a0analysis,\u00a0monetary\u00a0history and theory, and the complexity of\u00a0stabilization policy, came up as a relevant figure in the past weeks. He is the father of the \u201claissez faire\u201d libertarian mindset that challenges what he regards as \u201cnaive Keynesian\u201d theory. Keynes was by no means a leftist and some would even say he came to save capitalism with his theory that free markets could not be counted on to provide full employment, later creating new rationale for large-scale government intervention in the economy. Friedman is remembered by his passionate belief Continue reading The Father of Capitalism and Freedom<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[494,582,583],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-economic-policy","tag-libertarian","tag-milton-friedman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2802,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}