by Joe O'Malley
If he were still around today, Milton Friedman would have been turning 98 this upcoming weekend. Here is a debate between Friedman and Phil Donahue during the 1970's which demonstrates how powerful Friedman's ideas can be.
Clearly, Friedman relies on lessons from history as well as common sense to stop Phil Donahue and his arguments in their tracks.
There are three important points that Friedman emphasizes during the debate:
- Besides free enterprise, there has been no other vehicle through which the masses have escaped poverty.
- Where have the great innovations in society come from? Would government officials been able to create the modern assembly line or discover the Theory of Relativity?
- Do statists believe that politicians reward people based on their virtue or political clout?
These are all important points which can be brought up every time somebody argues that free enterprise has failed.
