2/01/2009

Milton Friedman on Greed

With all the attacks on private companies these days, I thought that this might be a useful anecdote for people to listen to.

Labels:

posted by John Lott at 9:59 PM

6 Comments:

Blogger Brian K Miller said...

Capitalism is good, greed is bad. No, they are not the same.

Henry Ford sought to build cars for "every man" rather than a rich elite.

Einstein sought to unravel the mysteries of space and time and spent most of his life at the edge of ragged poverty.

The Trumps, Bernankes, Paulsons and their ilk are not the epitome of civilization, they are the enemies of it. Esp. for 2nd Amendment believers. Who do you think funds the anti-gun coalition? It's not the farmers, factory workers, and small business owners.

And that's been my position my entire life.

2/01/2009 10:37 PM  
Blogger ICONIC FREEDOM said...

Thanks for posting this, John.

For months I've been posting on blogs about defining "greed" because no such thing exists.

Everyone is free to earn however much money they can in a free market system.

One man's definition of greed is another's living wage; who gets to decide and why that person.

Greed is subjective and no one holds authority to make such a decision except the individual for the self only.

2/01/2009 10:37 PM  
Blogger matty buckets said...

Phil was speechless.

2/01/2009 11:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anecdote or antidote?

Greed is or should be a core value of conservatism (that is not capitalism). Want what you have rather than have what you want.

2/02/2009 7:54 AM  
Blogger Dad29 said...

Sad to say, Friedman presented no argument about "greed." He chose not to define the word, and only offered counter-questions.

He missed a good opportunity.

2/02/2009 8:53 AM  
Blogger ICONIC FREEDOM said...

Attempting to define greed is simply a way of moralizing another's choice(s).

Why go down that road.

If you uphold free markets and free choice, then why do it.

If a contract between entities is not at a cost to you personally, then why do you have authority to decide what is greed and what is not.

To uphold the Constitution we simply do not infringe on the liberty of contracts or freedoms of choice.

Moralizing is another attempt to take ownership in order to impose on others your subjective values from wherever your derivations come.

Nothing more than a liberal ideology to silence, limit, control or regulate choice of others.

2/02/2009 2:13 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home