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I have maintained my point of view numerous times over the years and if you want a decent critique of Friedman then I have already said to give The Shock Doctrine a spin. I get bored of going over the same ground in threads like this as I have my stance and you have yours. There isn't going to be much common ground.
I'm more interested in you addressing the points in the video rather than your ad hominem. If the best you got is to boo the messenger then you don't really seem to have an argument. Forget Milton, what if it was Chomsky making those comments? How would you address them then? I have read Shock Doctrine and as usual the author attempts to provide examples that are in no way the free market principles of Friedman as ones of failure. There is a long list of phonies passing off their economic plan as free market principles. Particularly in this country. More importantly Klein attempts to weave together a variety of non-sequitar story lines into some international story of collusion. She is neither a historian nor an economists but rather an activist so where there should a strong academic and objective review of free market principles there isn't.
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A welfare system is a necessary component of any social democracy and I don't think many people would seriously maintain that it shouldn't be. Most sensible people see the sense in having taxes and taxes paying for hospitals, schools, maintaining infrastructure, job seekers allowance etc. It is about equality of opportunity and giving everyone a chance in life.
This is just an emotional appeal. All of these things exist outside of gov't and when done in the private sector are better. It should be noted though that the US is not a social democracy but rather a constitutional republic.
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The problem I have with Friedman is that his economic theories are inhumane and that he aligned himself with dictators that inflicted unspeakable violence upon the ordinary people of their countries. Countries where his economic terrorists would go and speak a mantra of 'freemarkets' which in essence simply meant mass privatisation and when people reacted to the shock with dissent, violence and disappearing became the tools to further the trade.
Milton's philosophy is grounded in freedom and liberty and specifically economic freedom. That being said he was pro-gay marriage way before it was cool, against the drug war and evolved to be a non-interventionist. You probably agree more with him than you think. I'm guessing you are talking about Chile though. Milton gave a series of lectures there on the threat to freedom from a centralized military government over a week long perio, met w/Pinochet for 45 minutes and wrote Pinochet a letter about the economic issues of the country. He maintained his criticism of the Junta his entire life and it is myopic to at least not acknowledge the role of increased economic freedom leading to ultimate political freedom in Chile. It is disingenuous to suggest he "aligned" himself w/Pinochet. I don't know what is surprising to anyone that a Chilean perversion of free market principles done under the guidance of a brutal dictatorship didn't provide perfect results. It should be noted though that there was an initial boost to the economy up until the Lost Decade.
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Milton Friedman was vile. Deregulation of financial markets leads to catastrophe, globalisation means competing with the world until the lowest common wage is reached, mass privatisation as seen in many countries leads to racketeering and ordinary people being fleeced, selling off council housing leads to young people generations later being excluded from ever owning a house. In each and every way, his crackpot notions have made people suffer.
Privatization in most places is simply a collusion between gov't and industry and not a free market solution. It is only b/c of a large powerful centralized gov't that this is capable of happening. Remove the gov't protections on industry and competition will lower prices thus improving the cost of living. Considering you advocate for a wage floor do you feel the same about pricing? Would you support a minimum price on goods? His ideas (as well as Bastiat, Hayek, Mises, Smith etc) have actually done more to alleviate suffering due to poverty than any gov't plan or idea.
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I advocate largely the opposite of Milton Friedman and ordinary people with educations in the real world would agree.
The real world? Miles, you can't find me one business owner that thinks more gov't regulation will improve their bottom line except for where it creates an unfair advantage for them and curbs their competition. Spend 1 year running a business and you will be trumpeting the likes of Rothbard.
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Experiments with extremist right wing freemarkets are inherently flawed and only exacerbate social inequality and in the process the rich corrupt the political system and make off with all the pie.
Again you are confusing corporatism and free markets. Capitalism has been the number one driving force to improve poverty in the world. You can make an argument that many people have used the name as cover for their own gov't collusion but that is an issue w/the gov't and not the underlying principles of freedom. Free movement of people, commerce and ideas are the best way to improve peace and quality of life. Economic freedom is equally paramount to liberty as political or any other type. That is the crux of Friedman's beliefs.
