Liberal Role Model
Milton Friedman: Liberal Role Model
Marcellus Andrews
January 11, 2005
So maybe it's been a while—or never—since you've heard Milton Friedman mentioned in the same breath as progressivism? Well, that should change, says the New America Foundation's Marcellus Andrews. We liberals could learn a lot from Friedman, who was willing to introduce radical ideas to his party when it was out of power. The move to the center isn't the way to go. Instead, Dems need to take a page from Milt's book, and go out on a limb.
Marcellus Andrews is a Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.
It is time for all good liberals and progressives to stop crying in their beer and raise a glass to Milton Friedman. That’s right, Milton Friedman: Nobel laureate in economics, polemicist without peer among the academic scribblers, the real—and only—brains of the American right.
Why should we praise this guy? Because sly old Milton Friedman, unbeknownst to himself, perhaps, is about to make America safe for strong, self-confident liberalism.
How has Uncle Milton assured a liberal renaissance? By reminding us that America is always ready for radical ideas that meet the people’s needs. Just think of it: in 1962, when liberals were running everything in this country, Uncle Milton wrote a smart little book, Capitalism and Freedom , proposing all sorts of crazy ideas. That capitalism is first and foremost about freedom; that free markets, left to themselves, will gradually squeeze out racial discrimination because the profit motive is more powerful than irrational prejudice; that markets will do a better job providing education than governments; that licensing is just a way for a bunch of people to prevent competition from making important goods available to all at reasonable prices; that Social Security should be held in private accounts.
Friedman proposed these things in 1962. 1962! That means that the American right hasn’t had an original thought in more than 40 years. Remember the Contract with America? Warmed-over Friedman. Bush’s Social Security weirdness? Leftover, warmed-over Friedman. Not that everything Uncle Milton wants is all bad. The earned income tax credit (EITC)? A riff on Friedman’s negative income tax that liberals could hijack in the name of economic justice. It is clear that the conservatives are running on empty. Sure, they know how to win elections: by scaring the heck out of people and by making bold—and now old—proposals to solve problems. But the right has been working on creating its own anti-New Deal for more than 40 years, ever since Friedman laid out the blueprint.
There’s very good news in all of this. When conservatives were getting stomped by liberals, Uncle Milton put his ideas out there for the world to see. He told everyone why capitalism was about freedom, why the liberals were wrong, and why radical ideas were the way to go. Economics professors in college used to laugh at Milton – the liberals out of contempt, the conservatives out of embarrassment. But Friedman stuck to his guns. He said that his ideas are logical, rooted in sound economics, and based on a specific idea of freedom that is better than what liberals offer. It took time, but the country came around because liberalism ran out of gas and Capitalism and Freedom had been around for a long time.
Friedman said that freedom is the point of public policy. His idea of freedom is narrow and kind of vicious: You are free to do what you want to do, if you have the means; otherwise, you are free to starve and die, preferably out of his line of sight. Uncle Milton was no bleeding heart: He was not about to give you money just because you were poor, though he would give you a chance to earn enough to survive, maybe.
Friedman was right about freedom being the point of policy, but was dead wrong about what freedom is all about. Liberals know that freedom requires means. Liberal freedom is the right and the capacity to make responsible choices. You can’t be free in the United States if you can’t read, write and count; if you can’t get a job because you don’t have useful skills; if you aren’t treated fairly by the courts and police; if you are harassed, beaten or killed because of your race, or gender or sexual preference; if free markets stick it to you by making everything cost more than it should—especially things you need, like health care, housing and schools. You cannot be free if you have the bad luck to be born to poor or incompetent parents, if you live in a city with lousy schools, if your neighborhood is full of angry and depressed people who react to life’s troubles by hurting and killing each other and maybe you, too.
Liberals need to create policies to realize their vision of freedom, just like Friedman. It's time to talk about freedom first, policies second. No more laundry list of stuff with the associated price tags, because we sound like the class nerd who always ate his brussels sprouts. If we have the good sense to learn Uncle Milton’s greatest lesson—how to be consistent, funny, tough and smart freedom-obsessed radicals who propose real solutions to people’s problems—then we will be ready to step in after the next right-wing crackup. In fact, we should toast Uncle Milton, architect of the American right and the brains of the Republican Party (that curious Klan-conservative alliance) for making America safe for radical ideas. Goodbye to the center, and hello to ideas. This may sound weird, Uncle Milton, but thanks for showing us how to be radicals in America.
Marcellus Andrews
January 11, 2005
So maybe it's been a while—or never—since you've heard Milton Friedman mentioned in the same breath as progressivism? Well, that should change, says the New America Foundation's Marcellus Andrews. We liberals could learn a lot from Friedman, who was willing to introduce radical ideas to his party when it was out of power. The move to the center isn't the way to go. Instead, Dems need to take a page from Milt's book, and go out on a limb.
Marcellus Andrews is a Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.
It is time for all good liberals and progressives to stop crying in their beer and raise a glass to Milton Friedman. That’s right, Milton Friedman: Nobel laureate in economics, polemicist without peer among the academic scribblers, the real—and only—brains of the American right.
Why should we praise this guy? Because sly old Milton Friedman, unbeknownst to himself, perhaps, is about to make America safe for strong, self-confident liberalism.
How has Uncle Milton assured a liberal renaissance? By reminding us that America is always ready for radical ideas that meet the people’s needs. Just think of it: in 1962, when liberals were running everything in this country, Uncle Milton wrote a smart little book, Capitalism and Freedom , proposing all sorts of crazy ideas. That capitalism is first and foremost about freedom; that free markets, left to themselves, will gradually squeeze out racial discrimination because the profit motive is more powerful than irrational prejudice; that markets will do a better job providing education than governments; that licensing is just a way for a bunch of people to prevent competition from making important goods available to all at reasonable prices; that Social Security should be held in private accounts.
Friedman proposed these things in 1962. 1962! That means that the American right hasn’t had an original thought in more than 40 years. Remember the Contract with America? Warmed-over Friedman. Bush’s Social Security weirdness? Leftover, warmed-over Friedman. Not that everything Uncle Milton wants is all bad. The earned income tax credit (EITC)? A riff on Friedman’s negative income tax that liberals could hijack in the name of economic justice. It is clear that the conservatives are running on empty. Sure, they know how to win elections: by scaring the heck out of people and by making bold—and now old—proposals to solve problems. But the right has been working on creating its own anti-New Deal for more than 40 years, ever since Friedman laid out the blueprint.
There’s very good news in all of this. When conservatives were getting stomped by liberals, Uncle Milton put his ideas out there for the world to see. He told everyone why capitalism was about freedom, why the liberals were wrong, and why radical ideas were the way to go. Economics professors in college used to laugh at Milton – the liberals out of contempt, the conservatives out of embarrassment. But Friedman stuck to his guns. He said that his ideas are logical, rooted in sound economics, and based on a specific idea of freedom that is better than what liberals offer. It took time, but the country came around because liberalism ran out of gas and Capitalism and Freedom had been around for a long time.
Friedman said that freedom is the point of public policy. His idea of freedom is narrow and kind of vicious: You are free to do what you want to do, if you have the means; otherwise, you are free to starve and die, preferably out of his line of sight. Uncle Milton was no bleeding heart: He was not about to give you money just because you were poor, though he would give you a chance to earn enough to survive, maybe.
Friedman was right about freedom being the point of policy, but was dead wrong about what freedom is all about. Liberals know that freedom requires means. Liberal freedom is the right and the capacity to make responsible choices. You can’t be free in the United States if you can’t read, write and count; if you can’t get a job because you don’t have useful skills; if you aren’t treated fairly by the courts and police; if you are harassed, beaten or killed because of your race, or gender or sexual preference; if free markets stick it to you by making everything cost more than it should—especially things you need, like health care, housing and schools. You cannot be free if you have the bad luck to be born to poor or incompetent parents, if you live in a city with lousy schools, if your neighborhood is full of angry and depressed people who react to life’s troubles by hurting and killing each other and maybe you, too.
Liberals need to create policies to realize their vision of freedom, just like Friedman. It's time to talk about freedom first, policies second. No more laundry list of stuff with the associated price tags, because we sound like the class nerd who always ate his brussels sprouts. If we have the good sense to learn Uncle Milton’s greatest lesson—how to be consistent, funny, tough and smart freedom-obsessed radicals who propose real solutions to people’s problems—then we will be ready to step in after the next right-wing crackup. In fact, we should toast Uncle Milton, architect of the American right and the brains of the Republican Party (that curious Klan-conservative alliance) for making America safe for radical ideas. Goodbye to the center, and hello to ideas. This may sound weird, Uncle Milton, but thanks for showing us how to be radicals in America.
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 6:45 AM
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