Milton Friedman: Killing America Softly with His Song

[malikstein]

Enjoy this appreciation of the man who inspired Augusto Pinochet.


by Sam Smith

"You'd never guess it from the sycophantic obituaries, but Milton
Friedman did more damage to American democracy and culture than just
about any figure in the 20th century.

The sycophancy isn't surprising. Friedman was blessed with it from the
start. For example, the supposedly liberal PBS starred him in a ten part
series, "Free to Choose" in 1980 just in time to help Reagan win the
presidency. To this day, even NPR babbles about the "free market" when
you all you have to do is count the number of lobbyists in Washington to
understand that such an economy doesn't exist.

..."

http://prorev.com/2006/11/milton-friedman-killing-america-softly.htm#links

[acmejack]

1. A tremendous legacy!

A smashing success for laissez faire capitalism, if I do say so myself. Let us all sing the praises of the dear, departed Milton.

- Real income down
- Real manufacturing wages down
- Top one percent's share of wealth up
- Income gap between rich and poor up
- Family indebtedness up
- Bottom forty percent's share of wealth down
- CEO pay as a percent of average workers' pay up
- Workers covered by pensions down
- Workers covered by health plans down
- Age at which one can receive Social Security down
- Personal bankruptcies up
- Housing foreclosures up
- Median rent up

Personally, I preferred Berle...

[malikstein]

2. Whenever I hear "free markets"

it's like scaping finger nails on a chalkboard. What murderous fiends these capitalists be!

[PuraVidaDreamin]

3. "At my age, I've done everything in my BVD's" M.Bearle

Yes Freidman and his Chicago Boys have harmed
us immeasurably.

[tanyev]

4. Family Values.

As for Margaret Thatcher, whose platform of public selfishness was used as a model for the Reagan campaign, she thought there wasn't even anything one could call a community: "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families."

This hadn't occurred to me before--the right wing obsession with "family values" is also a denial that there are societal values and responsibilities. It completely absolves them from having to care about society at large.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Yup, it's an "ownership society", all right

As in, "You're on your own". Sink or swim.

Failed for no fault of your own? Tough luck.

That's today's "free market economy".

[malikstein]

7. There is no society??

How do they explain our technological evolution from hunter gatherers to space explorers? It was all done by families. Yep, no society to transmit and create the conditions in which men, women and families might survive, much less progress. Ask any farmer how he would do if he weren't hooked into an entire network of social relations. Yep just men, women and families.

What ignorant bunk!

[blondeatlast]

17. That nails that philosophy right on the head.

I hadn't considered that before either, but it's exactly how they think.

[BlueEyedSon]

6. k & r

[jackster]

8. Imagine my disgust upon opening my email AT WORK

and reading this from the CFO of my company (which is a science based co and primarily blue except for the big guns and money pushers).

"A very sad day. Particularly if you are an immigrant , like me. Milton Friedman, probably the most influential economist after Adam Smith died today aged 94. Freedom of the individual in economic thought/decision was his mantra. The capital markets, on which Cubist depends, follow Friedman's thesis. There is no capital market in Russia. Ask yourself why?"

Immigrant? He's a weathly SCOT who drives a big suburban and commutes probably 150 miles a day! Makes it sound like he worked his way up from cleaning toilets. bullshit!

[malikstein]

9. If that message is indicative

he's more into filling toilets that cleaning them.

[DinahMoeHum]

10. When it comes to observing the effects of economic theories

on individuals and populations, human beings are involved.

Milton Friedman was a sorry excuse for one.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

:evilfrown:

[European Socialist]

11. Hate to say bad things about a dead guy, but he has done much damage.

[rinsd]

12. Left wing crank dislikes libertarian economist.

News at 11

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I think we would disagree who the crank was in this case

Friedman elevated "free markets" to an article of faith and helped usher in the era that sees "cost cutting" as a virtue in itself, without reference to what other values may be lost while the money is saved, or indeed, what the saved money is supposed to be used for.

[butterfly77]

13. Don't they mean ...

Bush killing america with his song " STAY THE COURSE"!

[nealmhughes]

15. He's gone to join his beloved Ayn with caviar and vodka and Sobranies in wherever it is that

dead athiests go.

[LeftishBrit]

16. To be fair, I don't think Pinochet needed any inspiration to be an evil psychopath!

However I do think Friedman's doctrines were and are damaging. Maggie Thatcher did horrible damage to this country, its people, its ethos and its industrial base; and, while I think that she too would have done most of it even if Milton Friedman had never lived, his views certainly helped to give her policies a bit of added respectability.