Milton Friedman Research Paper

“The path to economic growth is not engineered by the government; rather, the path to economic prosperity is built by the people.” This quote relates to classical liberalism because it displays a ring wing perspective, which indicates devalued government authority in relation to aspects of individualism. Overall demonstrating the economic perspective that favours the absence of government involvement. It brings into question what the most efficient way to run an economy is, and what is the best way to manage an economy to maintain stability. Some believe that government intervention in an economy is dangerous because it adds to the nation’s overall inflation rate and national debt. Friedrich Hayek is an economic theorist supporting little

Though the Great Depression had a devastating effect for the nation, Cass Sunstein believes that the depression revealed a great truth to the American public: laissez-faire is a myth. This understanding surpassed the “liberty from government” and “liberty through government” argument that the left and right quarrell over when laissez-faire is mentioned. In his book, The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s unfinished Revolution--and Why We Need it More Than Ever, Cass Sunstein attack the idea of laissez-faire economics by several claims: 1) government is not opposed to government, 2) there is no natural property rights and 3) conditions that created unemployment, poverty and starvation are not god-made but man-made.

As Milton Friedman once said, “Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us and history confirms that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power and political hands, it is also a threat to freedom.” Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” takes us into the mind of an economic genius and shows us his beliefs in a free market and the threat it presents to a dictatorship. Friedman, clearly a supporter of the free market, gives examples to show how a free market can aid a society in striving for success, becoming more dominant, and becoming more powerful. Though, at times he does show how a free market has disadvantages and he makes us aware as to how it can aid people in gaining individualism, knowledge, and overall improving a society. A free market is one that the price of a good or service is determined by supply and demand, in theory, rather than by government regulation. Milton’s thoughts and theory is that through a robust free market with political freedom, economic freedom will follow. Showing how economic freedom is a crucial toward the success of political freedom, Friedman’s theory of a free market and the Do Nothing Principle are major themes throughout his book.

When most of us think of the words opportunity cost, price, production, and service, we think of something related to obtaining or giving something. According to Merriam-Webster, opportunity cost is defined as, the added cost of using resources (as for production or speculative investment) that is the difference between the actual value resulting from such use and that of an alternative (as another use of the same resources or an investment of equal risk but greater return). Price, is defined as the amount of money that you pay for something or that something costs. Production, is defined as the process of making or growing something for sale or use, and lastly, service, is defined as, the occupation or function of serving. Milton Friedman, an American economist, would say, nothing in live is free, that is, if you want something, you have to give something. These four words can all be tied together and used to give and receive. We can either use it to our benefit or simply perform it. We could get the most out of life using these four words, opportunity cost, price, production, and service, by primary accepting that everything in life is obtained at a cost, acknowledging that they can be used as forward-looking concepts, and agreeing to do everything yourself instead of hiring someone to do it in your place.

According to Friedman, “Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom,” (Friedman 1). He says that in order to have political freedom, we need to have economic freedom. In a capitalist economy people thinks that they are free to sell a commodity, but they are

Milton Friedman and Garry Becker opposed the predominance of Keynesian economics. Contrarily to Keynes, the Chicago school argued against government intervention. According Garry Becker, “Chicago economists always had a strong tradition of a belief in the power of markets”. They believe in the market and the effectiveness of competition to reach equilibrium.

The US economy, as anybody would expect, has gone through its ups and downs. Some believe that our new president has a brilliant plan to create a phenomenal economy for our country. Others believe that his economic policy will take our country to the worst state it has ever been. Throughout our history, various styles of economic policy have been commonly believed. In the early 1900’s most economists believed in “classical” economics, this is the idea that the economy will work better when the government is more hands off. This can be thought of as the purest form of capitalism that has been attempted. In the late 1940’s, most US economists began to follow “Keynesian” economics. This form of

Many conflicting ideas exist in America today. That’s what makes it such a great example of democracy. People are allowed to fight for their beliefs to become law in our country. One of the main arguments is the welfare of others. Although America has established that it has and always will be a capitalist country, there are different aspects of capitalism that are up for debate. The main debate is on what type of free-market is better, Laissez-faire or Keynesian. Keynesians are for government protection on the market, and Laissez is for allowing the market to adjust on its own. The most recognized Laissez supporter is Milton Freidman. In his book, Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman believes that government intervention causes economic disaster and devaluation of the monetary system and that the concentration of power can be vulnerable to misuse.

Since the early days of the United States, the Founding Fathers and other brilliant minds sought ways to understand and make sense of the inner workings of society and the economic market. Out of the many thinkers and developers of that time period, perhaps none made so great an impact on American society as the Scottish contemporary philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith—who is most known for his influential work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, By the early nineteenth century, other streams of economic theory emerged from various individuals who were also influenced by the ideas of Smith. Some of these individuals included David Ricardo, Karl Marx and later John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman—each of whom contributed their own ideas on economic activity. However, it was Smith’s ideas on capitalism and his laissez-faire approach to free markets that have transcended other economic theories and continue to impact American economic thought to this day.

The Milton Friedman paper strongly supports my views on "what is economics", and the importance of science in acquiring and presenting economic knowledge.

Mr. Friedman was influenced by Fredrich von Hayek a free-market thinker and believed that the government should stay out of peoples affairs whenever possible letting and that market could solve economic problems more efficiently than government officials could. This idea became known as the “Chicago School” of economics, a concept of free-market capitalism. (Placeholder2)

Capitalism and Freedom, written by Milton Friedman, seems to focus significantly on the connections between the economics and politics, and the effect that those have in various aspects of society. This relationship was referred to throughout the book, and the topics Friedman discusses ranged between governmental control of money, to foreign policy and trade and the effect that has on our economy. Through the course of the book, Friedman constantly refers to his “classical liberal” view, which focuses on the freedoms and power of the individual in society. Friedman shows his support of this view during the book using the idea of a laissez-faire government. For Freidman, government involvement in issues regarding society should

In 1929, the stock market crashed. The values of production gone down, work force lost their jobs, millions of families lost their homes as well as millions of saving accounts were lost because banks closed for good. Those events resulted in the Great Depression. As a result, the world was plunged into economic turmoil. However, two prominent economists emerged with competing claims and sharply contrasting approaches on how a capitalist economy works and how to revive it when depressed. John Maynard Keynes an English economist believed that government has responsibility to intervene in an economical crisis whereas, Friedrich Hayek an Austrian-born economist and philosopher believed that the government intervention is worthless and

Milton Friedman’s Capitalism & Freedom is one of the most important books regarding economics of the 20th century. His thoughts laid the groundwork for the emerging modern conservative movement, which was an evolution of the 19th century beliefs surrounding liberalism. Friedman’s major themes of his most famous work consist of the roles of competitive capitalism, as well as the role that government should play in a society “dedicated to freedom and relying primarily on the market to organize economic activity.” The book touches on a multitude of other economic issues; however, his first two chapters regarding the major themes of the book are most

Other significant contribution or achievement of Milton Friedman in economy field is in economics scholarly. He had introduced a few of rule, function and hypothesis such as Friedman Rule, Friedman’s K-percent Rule, saving utility function and permanent- income hypothesis.