26 Replies to “Milton Friedman discusses Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, C-SPAN 2, 1994”

1. bh says:

   January 29, 2011 at 10:44 am

   Thanks. Something to listen to while I try and find the messed up formula in this stupid spreadsheet.

2. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

   January 29, 2011 at 12:58 pm

   …BECAUSE WE’VE BEEN DEPARTING FROM IT’S FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. THE FOUNDERS OF OUR, THE FOUNDERS OF OUR COUNTRY BELIEVED IN INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM…

   Yet anyone vocal about the above is violent, racist, hateful & generally insane.

   …but, as you’ve said, that’s only if our elected continue to allow them to define the narrative.

3. bh says:

   January 29, 2011 at 1:05 pm

   Found it. Note to joker who wasted a quarter of my Sat.: if you use it multiple times, just define a function.

4. The Monster says:

   January 29, 2011 at 3:07 pm

   What do Dead White Guys have to do with anything? ~Typical Lib

5. sdferr says:

   January 29, 2011 at 4:09 pm

   I noticed Friedman hastening to add at one point that he wasn’t asserting that Keynes was a bad economist, just that he had a wrong idea. I noticed also a few days ago, another economist asserting that Keynes was in fact simply a bad economist (or did he say something closer to “no economist at all”? Could be!). Tolerable speech about Keynes seems to have moved somewhat in the intervening years. Which, good.

6. newrouter says:

   January 29, 2011 at 4:26 pm

   Explaining the reason for the Czech Republic’s economic slump in the mid-90’s, then-President Vaclav Havel postulated that it was a “punishment for pride”:

   The government has embraced an arrogant ideology. They claim to know the key to prosperity. It’s analogous to communism. They thought the same thing. The clever ones – themselves – would run everything. That’s the analogy. The key to prosperity is to let things run themselves. We’ll liberalize everything, let everyone look after himself, let business, not the state, run the economy. The state should have no views, no policies of its own. Just open it all up, step back, let it go and you’ll see how well everything will work if we just leave things alone. “

   These were not prepared remarks. Havel was recorded while drinking scotch and chatting with political advisors. The translation from Czech may be a bit rough, but the relevancy to English-speakers warrants the rendition here. If he’d been born in America, Havel would have been a Republican – and might have succeeded Reagan as one of the great conservative leaders of our time.

   link

7. Stephanie says:

   January 29, 2011 at 5:05 pm

   Too bad the republicans can’t go back in time and groom Havel as their own Manchurian Candidate.

   Bonus, he would probably pronounce things properly, too.

8. The Monster says:

   January 29, 2011 at 5:10 pm

   It never ceases to amaze me how the Left bundles together:
   1) an absolute belief in evolution, the spontaneous emergence of stunning order and complexity out of the chaos of countless independent entities with no Great Architect to guide them;

   2) the simultaneous insistence that in the field of economics, no such decentralized mechanism is possible.

   I call this contradiction “Social Creationism”.

9. dicentra says:

   January 29, 2011 at 5:12 pm

   The problem with refuting the Left’s economic arguments is that they boil down to “We ought to be in power, you filthy, racist rednecks. Oh, and unicorns and skittles all around if you submit to us.”

   How do you refute a bid for raw power with an appeal to How Things Work In The Real World? They’re not even trying to operate in the real world. You can argue that socialism doesn’t work until you’re blue in the face, because socialism actually works quite well.

   For those in power.

10. dicentra says:

    January 29, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    bh: Maybe you should do my taxes this year. I swear I have never submitted a form that hasn’t needed correction, and I claim the same stuff every year. Using a calculator and everything.

    dicentra:accounting::socialism:prosperity

11. bh says:

    January 29, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    Heh, division of labor, di. accountant:tax prep and filing::bh:bh stuff

    I also don’t understand how my car works.

12. sdferr says:

    January 29, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    On merely economics terms, gotta like the other Vaclav better. But then, I happen to like him better on other grounds as well.

13. newrouter says:

    January 29, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    havel was an artist who had a clue

14. newrouter says:

    January 29, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    CLOSING DOWN THE COMPETITION: TSA shuts door on private airport screening program. “A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was ‘neutral’ on the program. TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.”

    No advantage for him, as it was making TSA look bad. Er, I mean, worse.

    link

15. dicentra says:

    January 29, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Interesting. Around the 48 minute mark, the interviewer asks if we’re at risk of it all tumbling down because of our massive debt, and Friedman says no, because you’ve got to look at the debt in comparison to assets.

    And then he says it depends on what we do from now on (this is 1994). He says that if we let government keep growing bigger, then yes, it will all come tumbling down.

    “But that isn’t going to happen,” he asserts, crediting the changed attitude of the American people, who recognize that the government is too big. I suppose that 5 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall that was probably true. But in the intervening 16 years, a whole generation of ignoramuses has grown up, and the radical hippies are in the White House.

    He’s prolly spinning in his grave so fast we could hook him up to a generator and power a small city.

16. dicentra says:

    January 29, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    I also don’t understand how my car works.

    Heh. I once swapped out the radiator of my 1979 Corolla by my own self, even going to a junk yard and picking out the replacement. Couldn’t get it soldered because it was plastic core, and with no A/C, removal consisted of four bolts and a few hoses.

    Couldn’t dream of doing that now with my 97 Protegé. I had to use a flashlight and both hands (literally) to find the dip stick.

17. SDN says:

    January 29, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    “I had to use a flashlight and both hands (literally) to find the dip stick.”

    Mrs SDN says she just ends me an e-mail….

18. dicentra says:

    January 29, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    Here’s Friedman and Sowell against Piven and I don’t remember who.

    That’s where my #9 comes in. Sowell and Friedman were of course right, but their opponents and the audience will not accept it because the TRVTH is irrelevant in the face of the will to power.

19. dicentra says:

    January 29, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    linky

20. djmoore says:

    January 29, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Sorry, but the interviewer here was an idiot. He didn’t let Friedman talk enough about Road, and continually changed the subject — where did Friedman meet his wife, what college did he attend, what were his parents like, where did he teach…. If those trivialities had come all in the front, by way of introduction, it would have been fine.

    But this twit would get Friedman rolling on some interesting topic, and then derail with a comment about Friedman’s tie.

    Least coherent “scholarly” interview I’ve ever heard.

    Most of all, as much as I like Friedman, I wanted to hear his thoughts on Road, and got almost nothing. I almost feel cheated.

    I much prefer the Free to Choose debate with Piven, et al. That was illuminating. Every debate I’ve ever seen Friedman have with his opponents, he demolishes them. It’s always clear that where his opponents are arguing with what they’ve been saying about him to each other, the ultimate strawman, he has thoroughly researched their positions and understands those arguments better than their proponents do.

21. Joe says:

    January 29, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    That was a poor interview (due to the questions), but Friedman is such a pleasure to listen to that it was still good. Hayek is also good to read and re-read.

    We should be teaching Friedman and Hayek to kids in high school.

22. Nolanimrod says:

    January 29, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    Thanks, Jeff. Great!

23. sdferr says:

    January 29, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    Brian isn’t about scholarly. He’s about citizenly.

24. Sarah Rolph says:

    January 30, 2011 at 7:27 am

    “Social Creationism” — good term.

    “We should be teaching Friedman and Hayek to kids in high school” — damned straight.

    Fear the Boom and Bust is an excellent start!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

25. B. Moe says:

    January 30, 2011 at 10:46 am

    There is a reason economics isn’t taught in government schools.

26. geoffb says:

    January 30, 2011 at 6:04 pm

    Somewhat off topic but still economic. “Is Something Serious Up at Treasury?
    “

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