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October 11, 2007
Milton Friedman, is a consequentialist libertarian. His moral vision is one of a society where people are free to choose for themselves. Such a society requires individuals to be free to use their own resources in their own way. The goal of social policy is to permit as many individuals as possible to pursue their own interests as fully as possible. This means the smallest, least intrusive government compatible with the optimal freedom for each person to pursue his own projects and follow his own values as long as he does not interfere with any other person's like freedoms.
Consequently, Friedman holds that the basic essential functions of government are to:
(1) to defend the nation from coercion from the outside and to defend individuals from coercion by others within the country;
(2) to enable the free market by establishing rules for exchange and by providing the medium of exchange; and
(3) to respond to neighborhood effects.
He says that the government should do only what markets cannot do and should enforce the "rules of the game." Specifically, the government should maintain law, order, and policy to prevent coercion; preserve the peace and provide for national defense; adjudicate disputes and enforce contracts voluntarily entered into; define the meaning of property rights and provide the means for modifying them and the other "rules of the game"; provide a monetary framework; foster competitive markets and overcome technical monopolies; and address neighborhood effects which are actions affecting others (e. g., pollution) where it is not feasible to charge or reward them.
Friedman explains that where the actions of one person affect another, and where the range and value of the effects can be controlled and determined, those involved should pay the price or receive the benefits or compensation for the actions.
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Gary, Speaking of Friedman and that other arch ghoul Friedrich Hayek have you read anything about Nasomi Lkein's new book The Shock Doctrine?
1. http://www.naomilkein.org/shock-doctrine
I bought the book yesterday and read the first 3 chapters.
Amazing stuff. An astonishing, thoroughly researched expose of the BRUTALIST BRUTOPIAN fantasies unleashed on to the entire world, beginning in South America and now being dramatized against Iraq.
She thoroughly desribes the role played by Friedman himself and all of his "true believer" Chicago boys clones in the dismantling of the cultural and social infrastructures of the (till then) prosperous South Amercan states.