The Biggest Criminal

Milton Friedman Pontificates

Bayou Renaissance Man has a post about crime wars, i.e. wars being conducted by criminal organizations. They differ from conventional wars only in that the participants are not 'legitimate'. Looking on Reddit for a relevant discussion I came across the above quote, which echoes my feelings on the subject. It's a sad state of affairs when the people in charge of making the laws, laws that we all are trying to live under, are the biggest criminals of all.

I've heard of Milton before, but I've never quite figured out just what was so special about him. I mean he blathered a bunch of blather about money, but so what? Everyone blathers about money. So I looked him and read enough of Wikipedia's article about him to find this passage, which gives a pretty good summation of the man.

Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention. He once stated that his role in eliminating conscription in the United States was his proudest accomplishment. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers and opposed the war on drugs. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.