Word: friedmanism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other hand, Friedman and the libertarian movement takes several stands that are considered right wing. Libertarians support a laissez-faire free market and oppose government interference with all property rights. They favor replacing social security with a system of private old-age insurance. Another libertarian goal is the development of a private free market education system. As the first step, Friedman advocates a voucher plan of school financing. The government returns in the form of a voucher the portion of each person's taxes it would have spent on education. The individual would then be free to use the voucher...
Some of the most interesting work libertarians have done is in trying to find alternative ways to provide "public goods" that have traditionally been supplied by government. Libertarians want to make these goods into private ones that can be supplied on the market like every other commodity. Friedman advocates, for example, a system of free market roads and streets. He also outlines a plan for privately supplied court systems. There is a great debate among libertarians over whether government is needed to provide some public goods or whether government is completely obsolete and all services can be provided better...
...FRIEDMAN DOES not speak for all libertarians; the movement is too diverse for that. His book is an addition to the growing shelf of works that seek to outline a future consistently libertarian society. USC philosophy professor John Hospers, Ayn Rand, and Murray Rothbard are others who have written similar books. Many have hailed Rothbard's scholarly "For a New Liberty" as the libertarian manifesto and he has become the leading theoretician of the movement...
Although libertarians take stands on both ends of the political spectrum, they are flawlessly consistent. They uphold their beliefs on every issue on both moral and practical grounds. As a libertarian, Friedman constantly tries to point out the inconsistencies of the left and right. He asks how can the leftist oppose war, the draft, and anti-abortion laws on the grounds of individual liberty and an abhorrence of violence, while at the same time ignoring property rights in supporting the violence of government economic control and heavy taxation? And how can the rightist support property rights and the free market...
...Friedman's book is interesting because it uses novel arguments on a different level than the strongly challenging theories of Rand and the carefully consistent, scholarly analysis of Rothbard. Friedman explains his ideas in an entertaining style of writing meant to attract the college student. The major shortcomings of the book are Friedman's failure to make explicit the philosophic and moral base of his ideas as other libertarians have done so meticulously. Nor does Friedman answer the traditional questions about monopoly and poverty in a laissez-faire economy as completely as Rothbard does in his economic treatises...