Unforeseen Contingencies

By now we've all heard that Milton Friedman, one of the greatest champions of liberty in all history, died yesterday. Friedman was truly a hero, and did a great amount of good for the world. Most of the regular media coverage of Friedman that I’ve heard entirely sidesteps his economic work (various public radio reports cited "Capitalism and Freedom" and "Free to Choose" as his seminal works, for example) but no one has missed the point that he was a great and influential libertarian, who opposed the draft, activist central bank policy, the war on drugs, and government rationing of schooling. On the first two, Friedman had great and beneficial influence, and on the latter two his ideas will yet win the day.

Of course, his real achievements were in technical economics. His work on the theory of money is a extremely valuable. His work on methodology less so, and his paper on positivism is badly mistaken, I think. But on net Friedman made great contributions to positive economic theory, and for this, even more than for his libertarian policy work, "we" here at Unforeseen Contingencies remember him.

But most of all, when "we" think of Friedman, two things come to mind. The first is a short little article that appeared in the Laissez Faire Books catalog some years back on Milton Friedman’s rules for debate and argument, a list of principles with short explanations of each. I don’t have the list handy (I think I have it in my files somewhere) but what always comes to mind is that Friedman tells us libertarians we are much more likely to convert others and win arguments if we 1) remain positive and of good cheer, 2) are always respectful of our opponents, and 3) always rely on a clear understanding of the facts and the best logic we can muster.

Now this isn’t Friedman’s list; rather, it is what I learned from his list. I think of it all the time and find it extremely valuable. Friedman is right. This is the way to articulate our ideas.

The second thing that comes to mind…I never met Friedman, but did hear him speak at a Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Vancouver B.C. I don’t remember what he said at all, although I recall being very favorably impressed. But what stands out most vividly was that I kept seeing him in the hotel hallways, walking around with his wife Rose. Everywhere and always they were holding hands, and smiling…no, grinning, as though they were having the greatest time in the world, just being together. I think when Friedman suggested we libertarians be positive and of good cheer he didn’t just mean for purposes of debate. This is the best advice on how to live.

The public radio retrospectives on Friedman all point out that early on he was regarded by much of the economics profession as a kook, and treated badly. This apparently didn't faze Friedman at all, and certainly didn't stop him. I think the Friedman approach to living and to spreading ideas --always remain positive and confident -- is a crucial part of why Milton Friedman ultimately triumphed. And it isn’t something that is gone. We should all be Friedmanites now.