Friedman on greed
January 6th, 2008 by Matt HittleIn keeping with the Milton Friedman posts here at FreedomTalks, I thought I’d post this fascinating video.
It’s Uncle Milty on Donahue back in the 1970s defending capitalism. More importantly, however, he stands up for the concept which Adam Smith identified so eloquently in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations- individuals pursuing their personal interests. This concept, unfortunately, has come to be known as “greed” by the Left.
Friedman dashes this pejorative meaning to the term.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Awesome video. The problem today is that people on the left consider our government “capitalism.” Of course, the government manipulating the economy through no-bid contracts and federal grants is the exact opposite of capitalism, so we have to contend with the distortion of language before any real policy change can happen…
January 7th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Albert Einstein and Henry Ford never got any help from *anyone* else in developing their ideas? Hogwash! I think the students, teachers, mentors, investors, etc. in their day did indeed help them become greater than they ever could on their own…period.
We do not *only* have to choose between communism, fascism, and capitalism…there is a third way…a mixed economy…they work and they are fair to everyone. We are closer to fascism now in this country than we have been in a long time IMO…that’s scary…
January 8th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Mister Guy, where’s your Nobel Prize?
January 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
LOL…I guess I’m still working on it. Actually, they don’t give out Nobel Prizes for the field that I was in. I guess your point is that Nobel Prize winners (like your buddy Milton) are never wrong? If that’s true, congrats on supporting Al Gore…