Milton Friedman dies

[burnthebeautiful]

I usually don't care when someone I never met, like a celebrity, dies, but I'm genuinely saddened by this news. Milton was a personal hero of mine, both in his ideas and his way of expressing them in a simple, friendly non-condescending way. I don't know what else to say without sounding corny.

http://cato.org/homepage_item.php?id=422

Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman Dies

Prominent free-market economist Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, passed away today at the age of 94. Friedman was widely regarded as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics, which stresses the importance of the quantity of money as an instrument of government policy and as a determinant of business cycles and inflation. In addition to his scientific work, Friedman also wrote extensively on public policy, always with primary emphasis on the preservation and extension of individual freedom. Friedman's ideas hugely influenced both the Reagan administration and the Thatcher government in the early 1980s, revolutionized establishment economic thinking across the globe, and have been employed extensively by emerging economies for decades.

Edward H. Crane, president of the Cato Institute, said of Friedman: "Here's a guy who won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work in monetary theory and he was a great Chicagoan, a great empiricist and theoretician of economics. But ultimately, what Milton believed in was human liberty and he took great joy in trying to promote that concept....Milton would say, 'Maybe I did well and maybe I led the battle but nobody ever said we were going to win this thing at any point in time. Eternal vigilance is required and there have to be people who step up to the plate, who believe in liberty, and who are willing to fight for it.' ...In my view he was the greatest champion of human liberty in my lifetime, certainly in the 20th century. And he didn?t slack off in the 21st century."

[Rocketman]

Rest in peace, Milt.  Tonight my friends and I will drink to you and celebrate your many accomplishments for liberty.

[toowm]

I am working from home today and stopped the kids' regular homeschool to watch the first hour of Friedman's 1980 PBS show, "Free to Choose."

I do not know any exception to the proposition that if you compare like with like, the freer the system, the better off the ordinary poor people have been.

There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you?re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I?m not so careful about the content of the present, but I?m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else?s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else?s money on myself, then I?m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else?s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else?s money on somebody else, I?m not concerned about how much it is, and I?m not concerned about what I get. And that?s government. And that?s close to 40% of our national income.

The two folks that started me on this path that led to New Hampshire were Robert Heinlein and Milton Friedman. Now they are both gone. How I wish they could see the community we hope to develop.

[Transition Force]

It's sad, but he lived a good and long life, and I can't think of any other public figure who's fought harder for liberty than he.

[Brock]

I don't mind being corny.  Professor Friedman taught me a new way of looking at a familiar world.  He opened doors for me that most never dream exist.  I miss him already.

[aries]

Thats a shame!

[Lloyd Danforth]

I once met him and knew his son David.  There was a scare of some sort over his health, heart, I think, in the mid '70's.  He got 30 more years!  Goodbye Milton.

[Rochelle]

Sad he died, sad he didn't have more of an impact, and sad he learned 10 years too late that federal withholding taxes are BAD.

But that's alright. He did a good job and if I can accomplish half of what he did to further economic freedom (withholding taxes excepted, of course), I will be extremely happy.

[Rosie the Riveter]

For me, as an education reformer-- His writing and work on school choice has truly impacted my life.

He will be missed.

http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/schoolchoice/index.html

[Neal Jiutai]

Thank you so much for being one of this world's greatest defenders of liberty. You will be missed. 

Everyone can go 'digg' the article, thereby exposing others to it, at http://digg.com/politics/Libertarian_economist_Milton_Friedman_has_died

[Spencer]

I once met him and knew his son David.  There was a scare of some sort over his health, heart, I think, in the mid '70's.  He got 30 more years!  Goodbye Milton.

His son, David, is a vocal anarcho-capitalist.