Milton Friedman Bitch Slap's Obama's "You didn't build that" nonsense

[CrusaderFrank]

“The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.

If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. 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 the free-enterprise system.” --Milton Friedman

CARPE DIEM: Milton Friedman Responds to Obama

Every re-distributive economy is an inhumane shithole, every single one of them. It's so fucking bad they have to build walls to keep anybody with a brain from fleeing. But that's the exact system embraced and adored by the "American" Left. They love a system that has a 100% Guaranteed fail rate and while they're living in the #1 economy in the world.

Insanity. Absolute fucking insanity.

 

[occupied]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

 

[Moonglow]

More talking dead, like the Reagans.

 

[GuyPinestra]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Whether he's dead or not, it's obvious that his words live and remain true...

 

[Oddball]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Yeah...It's almost as though he knew an insolent Marxist shitheel like Boiking was going to come along a few decades later, to make his commentary prescient.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Mao and Stalin are dead but the "American" Left still follows their teachings

 

[occupied]

Whatsa matter? Did I blaspheme against your messiah and his holy words?

 

[Moonglow]

“The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests",

Only on a personal basis, when it comes to a business you rely on other people to patronize your establishment or service.

 

[Moonglow]

Mao and Stalin are dead but the "American" Left still follows their teachings

Got any proof? Or you just trying to pull magic tricks out your ass?

 

[Black_Label]

The dead not only talk to right wing crazies, but they also show up to vote (R) at every election.

 

[Moonglow]

triyng to blame a president for what 300 million consumers do I most illogical.

 

[Listening]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

 

[occupied]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

Pretty bad when a guy who's policies made so many people irredeemably poor is held up as a god of economics.

 

[Sallow]

Milton Friedman..

 

[Oddball]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

Pretty bad when a guy who's policies made so many people irredeemably poor is held up as a god of economics.

Good point....He was one of FDR's economic advisers.

 

[Listening]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

Pretty bad when a guy who's policies made so many people irredeemably poor is held up as a god of economics.

I don't recall him ever being over our education system.

Good luck getting out of poverty.

Or did you mean he used to recruit people to the democratic party ?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

This time "Spreading the wealth" will work. They swear on your last nickel!

 

[Listening]

Friedman is dead, quite a trick.

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

This time "Spreading the wealth" will work. They swear on your last nickel!

Before or after they take it ?

 

[Londoner]

“The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.

If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. 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 the free-enterprise system.” --Milton Friedman

CARPE DIEM: Milton Friedman Responds to Obama

Every re-distributive economy is an inhumane shithole, every single one of them. It's so fucking bad they have to build walls to keep anybody with a brain from fleeing. But that's the exact system embraced and adored by the "American" Left. They love a system that has a 100% Guaranteed fail rate and while they're living in the #1 economy in the world.

Insanity. Absolute fucking insanity.

This assumes that the essential argument is between free markets and socialism. It's not. Neither exists. Here is what does exist. A partnership between the private sector and government. Your rant doesn't explain what's good about things like the Hoover Dam and the national Interstate.

The private sector craves modern industrial infrastructure and a legal system to protect their property and enforce their contracts and [things like] FDIC insurance to protect their risk. The private sector lives off subsidies and bailouts. Profit makers crave government help, that's why the USA has built the largest lobbying system in the world.

You seem to be making a point around which there is very little controversy, namely that a successful economy must find a way to channel rather than block selfishness. Nobody is arguing for socialism. You've been captured by a talk radio straw man. We're trying to figure out how to build the Hoover Dam when no single market actor can afford to do it. We're trying to appraise the value of the government investment in commercial aviation and computer technology - and the level which capital depends on the modern industrial state, supplied by the public, made possible by taxation. Also your rant doesn't draw distinctions between the state controlled, re-distributive economy of Denmark - where people are free, happy and well educated - and China, the unfree place with whom the glorious American private sector does the most business.

Capitalism is heavily dependent on these freedom-hating nations for labor and raw material. WalMart and the American retail sector would not exist without communist China. Capitalism despises freedom in the following way: a free middle class brings terribly high labor costs, and they tend to impose a higher regulatory burden because they don't want corporations polluting their water. Investment Capital thrives in freedom-hating parts of the world. Do you know how much higher the returns are with sweatshop labor. The point of post-Reagan capitalism was to make it easier for American investment capital to be partnered with freedom-hating nations who could supply ultra cheap labor and ultra cheap raw material. This suggests that the whole issue of freedom is complicated. Your rant doesn't help us understand any of the interesting stuff.

Frank, your essential premise about incentivizing productivity by letting people realize the highest possible returns on their efforts is not a new idea. We all understand that if you pay people not to work, they won't work. You haven't addressed any of the complicated stuff though. The NYC Subway system and the fucking Brooklyn Bridge was made possible by [things like] government and taxation - by private/public partnerships. Your rant doesn't draw any distinctions. The technology that fueled the 80s consumer electronics boom was hugely dependent on the Cold War Pentagon and NASA. Your rant doesn't explain what is supplied purely by the private sector and what is supplied by Washington. It sounds well-meaning but extremely un-educated. You can do better. You have done better.

People who worked for government died for you in WWII. Ronald Reagan's father was saved by an FDR work program paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy. It was - at the time - understood as an investment in the American people. And it paid dividends in the form of a great president - the 40th. Rather than demonizing government indiscriminately, at least try to understand what government provides that is useful, and what it supplies that isn't. Understand both sides of the equation. Join the debate good man! Say something interesting.

 

[occupied]

Pretty bad when a dead guy slaps your candidate around !

Pretty bad when a guy who's policies made so many people irredeemably poor is held up as a god of economics.

Good point....He was one of FDR's economic advisers.

Was he? If so, he hated what FDR did. He much preferred what Pinochet did.