Sunday, February 11, 2018

Milton Friedman On Enemies of the Free Market



This is a generally solid analysis by Milton Friedman but he is wrong about one thing. He says consumers don't have the political clout to fight big business. This is an error. It is because consumers don't generally hold free markets in high regard that it allows legislators to cut deals that benefit crony businessman. If consumers demanded free markets, there is a legislator alive who would act against such voting strength.

-RW

2 comments:

  1. Consumers can of course withhold their dollars from any business, and in that sense are the masters and the entrepreneurs the servants. However, because crony businesses work with the state to make it harder for new competitors to enter the market to try to better serve consumers, this reduces the options for consumers who want to purchase a particular good or service.

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  2. On significant occasions elected office holders have gone against what they were told to do by voters. Even when they were replaced nothing changed. If that doesn't work a very useful event comes along and voters then go along with what government wants.

    Government controls the schools. The people who have the most influence over the government own the media. The result is that most people believe in this tax break and subsidy system to bring a new corporate whatever to town for the jobs. They believe in regulation that makes it so only big business can operate.

    To get the massive change needed the setting of people's thought patterns must be broken. Otherwise we will always have this uphill battle of getting people to understand that what their grade school teachers told them was wrong. Most people don't want to admit they were duped even if it was when they were children. Especially when the media reinforces the school teachings. There's a reason why the schools were changed first.

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