Milton Friedman

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Milton Friedman’s Economic Thoughts

One of the most distinguished and influential economist today is Milton Friedman. He was
born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 31, 1912. After attending public elementary and secondary
schools he graduated from Rahway High School in 1928. Shortly after he received a scholarship
to Rutgers University, which is where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1932
(“Autobiography ...”). Then Friedman received his PhD from Columbia right before becoming a
professor of ecomonics at Chicago in 1946. Through all this he has written a numerous amount
of books that express his economic views and has outstanding accomplishments to look back on.
One of his most profound accomplishments was receiving a Nobel Prize in economics in 1776
(“Autobiography ...”).
In 1962 the book Capitalism and Freedom was published, his wife, Rose reworked a series
of lectures he gave at seminars throughout the 1950’s to make up this book. The publishing of
this book was an extension of his liberal economic views. It shows a government that allows
individual rights while maintaining order, and that the only way this can be accomplished is
through capitalism and a free market economy (Capitalism and Freedom). Friedman writes that
the major function of the government is to protect the people and their freedom from enemies and
that he strongly believes in a limited government. With this he agreed with the seperation of
powers among the three different branches and that yes we needed a government but there where
many things the government had business doing (Capitalism and Freedom). A hands-off approach
to government interference in the private market shows that he is a traditional laissez-faire
liberalism. His belief in a limited government is supported by his desires to restrict the government
from the lives’ of individuals, and are the concept of early liberalism found in the late eightee...