|
Capitalism
and Freedom
By Milton
Friedman
University of Chicago, 1963 - 202 pages
I started reading this
book awhile back but did not finish reading it because I
got more focused with my reading so that I could attain
some specific goals.
I hope to finish reading the book by the end of
the year. I’m
only about 50 pages into it and I don’t foresee myself
picking it up until I am done reading the
historical-oriented books previously mentioned.
Milton Friedman, a
Nobel Prize Winner in Economics like Hayek, is known for
several things. First,
he was heavily responsible for economic thoughts on
monetary policy in the 70’s / 80’s, which enabled
the
U.S.
government to slow down inflation which was running
rampant due to the oil embargo in the mid 70’s.
The basic concept of this book, like F.A.
Hayek’s Road to
Serfdom, is that governments shouldn’t play too
large a role in our society and that greater government
involvement is a bad thing because it keeps the free
market from working.
This book, along with
F.A. Hayek (The
Road to Serfdom) and Ann Rynd are the most quoted
books by Libertarians.
At their core belief
Libertarians believe that free markets and freedom are
inseparable because freedom requires individuals to be
free to use their own resources in their own way, and
modern society requires cooperation among a large number
of people.
One needs to remember
that Friedman wrote his work following the huge growth
in Keynesian economics.
Mr. Friedman saw, first hand, how the success of
The New Deal caused government spending, as a percentage
of GDP, grew through the 1970s and he believed it was
infringing upon individual’s freedom’s.
| 
