I think that nothing is so important for freedom as recognizing in the law each individualโs natural right to property, and giving individuals a sense that they own something that theyโre responsible for, that they have control over, and that they can dispose of.
Milton FriedmanProhibition is an attempted cure that makes matters worse - for both the addict and the rest of us.
Milton FriedmanThe Founding Fathers envisioned a federal government that trusts its people with their money and freedom, outlining this limited, non-intrusive federal government in...the Constitution, leaving the other powers to people...or to the states.
Milton FriedmanIf, for example, existing government intervention is minor, we shall attach a smaller weight to the negative effect of additional government intervention. This is an important reason why many earlier liberals, like Henry Simons, writing at a time when government was small by today's standards, were willing to have government undertake activities that today's liberals would not accept now that government has become so overgrown.
Milton FriedmanIf instead of looking at income, you look at levels of consumption, if anything that's become more equal. The fraction of families that have a dishwasher, that have a sewing machine, that have a television set. In respect to consumption, it's very hard to avoid the view that people have been getting more equal rather than more unequal.
Milton FriedmanMy monetary studies have led me to the conclusion that central banks could profitably be replaced by computers geared to provide a steady rate of growth in the quantity of money. Fortunately for me personally, and for a select group of fellow economists, that conclusion has had no practical impactโฆ else there would have been no Central Bank of Sweden to have established the award [Nobel Prize] I am honoured to receive.
Milton Friedman