Analysis Of Capitalism And Freedom By Milton Friedman

First, let’s begin by analyzing the arguments put forwards for a market system by poster boy for modern laissez-faire capitalism, Milton Friedman. His arguably most famous text Capitalism and Freedom puts rests the argument for free market capitalism upon three pillars of thought that Friedman believes to be self evident: privately operated markets are naturally occurring, significantly more efficient than a centrally planned economy because of the limited information available to individual actors, and morally justified as an expression of the rights to self-determination and political freedom. As defined by Friedman, â€Å"Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men. The fundamental threat to freedom is the†¦show more content†¦Rather, the problems come with his third assertion, that markets are inherently liberating and that they are the antidote to coercion. If Friedman genuinely thought that market societies prevent coercion, perh aps he should have looked into who paid for the founding of the University of Chicago. That would be a certain John D. Rockefeller, the richest American of all time and a ruthless subjugator of his laborers. In its heyday, Rockefellers Standard Oil could give any authoritarian dictatorship a run for its money when it came to the coercion of labor and the tamping down on the rights of individuals to self-determination. Friedman fails to recognize the threat of market entities that can be just as tyrannical and corrosive as overzealous governments. In Friedman’s view, monopolies are solely the result of government intervention in the economy. Operating under the false assumption that monopolies will always fall apart unassisted because of competition, Friedman blames their existence on outside factors and not the natural desire of capitalists to exploit. Following his circular logic, because private tyranny of a monopoly only exists because of government meddling, whatever suf fering the workers face at the hands of their capitalist oppressors counts as political oppression. The other major failureShow MoreRelatedMilton Friedman and His Contribution For The Economic Field Essay1218 Words   |  5 Pagesproductive uses. The minimal government advocacy of an ‘’unregulated free market’’ is founded on an ‘’assumption about individuals being rational, self-interested and methodical in the pursuit of their goals. Adam Smith was not an advocate of pure capitalism. Adam Smith allowed for many exceptions to a strictly free-market economy. The classical liberals advocated policies to increase liberty and prosperity. They sought to empower the commercial class politically. 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