Great book, life changing reading!

books:


	• Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition Milton Friedman University Of Chicago Press, 2002 - 230 pages average customer review:based on 121 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book, life changing reading!

Reading this book gave me a whole new perspective about life, economics and individual responsibility. It's a must for everyone, even if you are not a student of economics.

Great book on economic theory

One of the "readers" complained about the failures of the free market...I say 'readers' in quotations because the free market has never failed. There has never been a 100% free market in America, but instead a Mixed Economy...just as there has never been a free market in Africa or anywhere else. There have always been elements of Government control.

The perceived failures of the free market have always come from special favors given by Government to businessmen...thankfully this book does Capitalism justice by refuting the very notion that Socialism resembles a valid political/economic system.

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Free to Choose is a better read.

While I believe Milton Friedman was an intelligent person with some views that are highly intellectually stimulating even when I disagree with them, this is definitely not his best work. Capitalism and Freedom is unnecessarily brief and therefore, the arguments Friedman makes come off as overly simplistic and lacking any real depth. If you're looking for a better read by Milton Friedman, read Free to Choose. The arguments in Free to Choose are much more detailed and therefore, more convincing.

Capitalism and Freedom

A strong case for limited government and for reducing government's place in a free market economy. Even though 50 years old, it remains timely and thought-provoking.

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A fantastic book!

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn about Milton Friedman and also some economics. Most of the information I have gotten about Friedman were usually from third sources. And depending on a person's political persuasion, the critique was either laudable or damning. We live in a very politically polarized time.
What I discovered was a marvel. Friedman's writing and ideas were convincing and logical. There was no tinge of political right-wing rhetoric as I expected and his views were very well explained. Friedman came across as very reasonable and clear. I believe that he would have advocated an economic idea even if it strayed from his own beliefs as long as it worked.
One of his ideas that I did not know much about was school vouchers. One of the ways of understanding school vouchers is to use the G.I. Bill as an example: Soldiers returning from WW2 service were given higher education vouchers so that they could attend any university or college that they wanted to. The G.I. Bill helped educate a generation of Americans. Everyone benefited because having an educated workforce is to everyone's best interest. A skilled and educated workforce means better jobs and a better standard of living. School vouchers would work exactly like the G.I. Bill would have. Like G.I.'s, parents would receive vouchers and they could then decide where to send their children. Interestingly, many of my progressive friends get fired up against vouchers. But I believe it is because they think that it means that all schools would be privatized. Not so. Taxes would still be collected for public education but instead of funds going to a bureaucracy, it would go to parents instead.
Another piece of information that I found fascinating was Friedman explaining the cause of the Great Depression. I always thought that it was due to the stock market crash but this is only half the story. The stock market crash was bad but the biggest problem was the lack of action by the Fed. It constricted the amount of money in the economy and it also failed to act when banks started to fail: A role that it is supposed to take up and the reason that it was created in the first place.
The last big point that sticks out about this book is Friedman's careful warning about the dangers of crony capitalism. Friedman advises against government subsidies or tax breaks for select industries. Inevitably, these sorts of practices are not only unfair and onerous to taxpayers but they encourage monopoly and are always harmful to free-market forces and to consumers.
There are many, many subjects covered in this small book. Friedman packs more erudite learning into 200 pages than most others could in 500 pages. I feel like I have really learned something after reading this book. I highly recommend that you pick up and read this book if you are interested in economics and Milton Friedman. Don't depend on other sources when it comes to Friedman because as I have found out, they tend not to know about his ideas or are skewered by their political viewpoints.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Selected by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the "hundred most influential books since the war"

How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of his immensely influential economic philosophy?one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. The result is an accessible text that has sold well over half a million copies in English, has been translated into eighteen languages, and shows every sign of becoming more and more influential as time goes on.

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