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" Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest? "
Milton Friedman
Self-Interest
Economic
Political
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" Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive. "
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" Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes. "
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" The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. "
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" Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government. "
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" So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system. "
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" Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation. "
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Form
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" We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork. "
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Work
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" I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. "
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Finance
Circumstances
I Am
" Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. "
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Against
Belief
Free
" History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. "
Milton Friedman
Capitalism
History
Political
" Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. "
Milton Friedman
Belief
Group
Freedom
" Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government. "
Milton Friedman
Want
Government
More
" Governments never learn. Only people learn. "
Milton Friedman
Learn
Only
People
" Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another. "
Milton Friedman
Assume
Economic
Pie
" Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. "
Milton Friedman
Like
Politics
Scorned
" Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. "
Milton Friedman
Program
Nothing
Government
" The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. "
Milton Friedman
Place
Fact
Free
" The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way. "
Milton Friedman
World
Way
Self
" The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience. "
Milton Friedman
Test
Comparison
Only
" Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. "
Milton Friedman
Nation
Government
Military
" Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence. "
Milton Friedman
Friend
I Am
Freedom
" The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy. "
Milton Friedman
Economy
Great
Government
" I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal. "
Milton Friedman
Right
Want
People
" If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. "
Milton Friedman
Government
Politics
Sand
" Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless. "
Milton Friedman
Only
Good
Politics
" The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government. "
Milton Friedman
Government
Never
Science
" The most important ways in which I think the Internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for government to collect taxes. "
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Important
Think
Government
" And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you'll pardon me, American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout? "
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Think
People
Me
" When government - in pursuit of good intentions - tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player. "
Milton Friedman
Government
Help
Freedom
" Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed? "
Milton Friedman
Society
Greed
Know