In his new book How Barack Obama is Bankrupting the U.S. Economy, Stephen Moore, senior economics writer at the Wall Street Journal, speculates how Milton Friedman would respond to the current economic crisis:
At times like this, I become more nostalgic for the indispensable missing voice in this debate: Milton Friedman’s. No one could slice and dice the sophistry of the left’s government-market interventions better than Friedman. Imagine what he would have to say about the arrogance of the U.S. government of owning and operating the car companies or managing the $2 trillion health-care industry. “Why not?” I can almost hear him ask. “After all, they’ve done such a wonderful job of delivering the mail…”
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one of my last conversations with Friedman, when he warned that “even though socialism is a discredited economic model and capitalism is raising standards to new heights, the left intellectuals continue to push for bigger government everywhere I look.” He predicted that people would be seduced by collectivist ideas again. He was right.
Bevan Sabo
Ariel Goldring
Guest Blogger
