January 11, 2005
RENEWED, NOT NEW:
Milton Friedman: Liberal Role Model (Marcellus Andrews, 1/11/05, TomPaine.com)
It is time for all good liberals and progressives to stop crying in their beer and raise a glass to Milton Friedman. That’s right, Milton Friedman: Nobel laureate in economics, polemicist without peer among the academic scribblers, the real—and only—brains of the American right.Why should we praise this guy? Because sly old Milton Friedman, unbeknownst to himself, perhaps, is about to make America safe for strong, self-confident liberalism.
How has Uncle Milton assured a liberal renaissance? By reminding us that America is always ready for radical ideas that meet the people’s needs. Just think of it: in 1962, when liberals were running everything in this country, Uncle Milton wrote a smart little book, Capitalism and Freedom , proposing all sorts of crazy ideas. That capitalism is first and foremost about freedom; that free markets, left to themselves, will gradually squeeze out racial discrimination because the profit motive is more powerful than irrational prejudice; that markets will do a better job providing education than governments; that licensing is just a way for a bunch of people to prevent competition from making important goods available to all at reasonable prices; that Social Security should be held in private accounts.
Friedman proposed these things in 1962. 1962! That means that the American right hasn’t had an original thought in more than 40 years.
The American Right has never had an original thought, believing the old ones good enough. For instance, those radical ideas of Mr. Friedman's weren't actually new, just out of style. The Right doesn't believe in style either. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 11, 2005 4:43 PM
I guess this guy never heard of Von Mises, Hayek, Buckley, or even Adam Smith.
Worse for him, the ideas of modern "liberals" do not meet anyone's needs, except perhaps their own. The coming debate over SS reform highlights that quite clearly.
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 11, 2005 5:06 PMTwo can play this stupid game. In 1962, the 'progressive' ideas of FDR were already 30 years old. Now they are 70+ years old and the Democrats haven't changed. So who is hidebound?
Posted by: jd watson at January 11, 2005 5:59 PMAmerican liberals (in contrast to actual avowed socialists and Marxists) are remarkably ignorant of their own intellectual history, and remarkably insouciant about it as well.
This does take the cake, though.
Posted by: John Thacker at January 11, 2005 6:28 PMPretty much every leftwing idea can be traced back to Proudhon or Fourier. 'Property is Theft.'
Posted by: Bart at January 11, 2005 7:49 PMOJ's right: Friedman's ideas were old hat, even if his creative applications of them were inventive. Friedman definitely had (has, actually) a gift for making ideas that initially sound far-out seem completely reasonable; when he published that book in 1962, it really went against the Zeitgeist and some Keynesians tried to keep it out of academic libraries.
The author goes on to further nonsense about how you're not "free" if external nongovernmental constraints limit your freedom of action -- i.e., if you're short or bald or poor or ugly or have to work for a living.
He also calls the GOP a "klan-Conservative alliance" while saying that Friedman is the only smart conservative out there. Drop him a line and tell him to visit this website. And tell him Friedman is ours, not his.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at January 12, 2005 12:10 AM