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View Full Version : Milton Friedman's a radical neoliberal?!




jbrace
01-05-2010, 01:33 PM
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jbrace
01-05-2010, 02:10 PM
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Epic
01-05-2010, 02:26 PM
"Shock Doctrine" is a pro-fascist book written by an economic incompetent [it falls into protectionist and nationalist economic fallacies, and advocates a greater role for the State, which will inevitably increase the "power" of corporations cause government will give them favors, reduce their competition, institute licensing, etc.].

It's main message - that the State expands in crisis - is obviously untrue. Look at 9/11, or the Great Depression, or whatever. Remember Rahm Emanuel's quote - never let a crisis go to waste...

Klein isn't even an economist.

Neoliberal to me generally means "corporatism and political centralization" - and Friedman was opposed to those things.


The problem mentioned was that America is becoming a fascist nation because of unrestrained corporate power.
Without government, corporations have no "power" - government is the only institution that can use force legally. Without government protections, companies have to satisfy the consumer to get money. The answer is limiting government. Milton Friedman often pointed out that limiting government was the antidote to government schemes that were instituted with the intended effect of benefiting large companies. For example, Walmart is currently lobbying for minimum wage increase and Obamacare because it would have a larger effect on smaller competitors. Klein would probably support both those efforts - she is the fascist.

http://www.nysun.com/arts/shock-jock/63867/
http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/132.aspx

haaaylee
01-05-2010, 02:47 PM
can you please link to what you are referring to?

i'm confused as to if you are quoting other people or if this is what you are saying ...

jbrace
01-05-2010, 05:13 PM
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haaaylee
01-05-2010, 05:18 PM
In response to his Chile comment, he is not correct at all:


"During 1975, two years after the military rebellion that ended the government of Salvador Allende, the economy of Chile experienced a crisis. Friedman accepted the invitation of a private foundation to visit Chile and lecture on principles of economic freedom. He spent five days in Chile. Friedman encapsulated his philosophy in a lecture at Universidad Católica de Chile, saying: "free markets would undermine political centralization and political control."[37]

Friedman also met with the military dictator, President Augusto Pinochet during his visit. He did not serve officially as an advisor to the Chilean government, but did write a letter providing Pinochet with a "shock" program to end hyperinflation and promote a market economy[38]. His letter suggested that a brief period of cutting government spending would reduce its fiscal deficit and thus reduce the rate of increase of the quantity of money in the country that was driving inflation. Friedman felt that there might be a brief period ("measured in months") of higher unemployment, followed by recovery once inflation was tamed. His letter also suggested that cutting spending to reduce the fiscal deficit would result in less transitional unemployment than raising taxes to do so. Later, Friedman said he believed that market reforms would undermine Pinochet.[39] Chilean graduates of the Chicago School of Economics and its new local chapters had been appointed to important positions in the new government soon after the coup, which allowed them to advise Pinochet on economic policies in accord with the School's economic doctrine.

According to his critics, Friedman did not criticize Pinochet's dictatorship at the time, nor the assassinations, illegal imprisonments, torture, or other atrocities that were well-known by then.[40] Later, in Free to Choose, he said the following: "Chile is not a politically free system and I do not condone the political system ... the conditions of the people in the past few years has been getting better and not worse. They would be still better to get rid of the junta and to be able to have a free democratic system."[41]



Friedman defended his activity in Chile on the grounds that, in his opinion, the adoption of free market policies not only improved the economic situation of Chile but also contributed to the amelioration of Pinochet's rule and to the eventual transition to a democratic government during 1990. That idea is included in from Capitalism and Freedom, in which he declared that economic freedom is not only desirable in itself but is also a necessary condition for political freedom. He stressed that the lectures he gave in Chile were the same lectures he later gave in China and other socialist states.[42] During the 2000 PBS documentary The Commanding Heights, Friedman continued to argue that criticism over his role in Chile missed his main contention that freer markets resulted in freer people, and that Chile's unfree economy had caused the military government. Friedman suggested that the economic liberalization he advocated caused the end of military rule and a free Chile.[43]"