Capitalism and Freedom (1960) - Day 1d

pages 7 - Chapter 1

1. It's believed that individual freedom is a political problem and material welfare is an economic problem. That any kind of political system can be combined with any kind of economic system. (e.g. "democratic socialism" would be different from "totalitarian socialism")
2. This chapter's thesis:
1. That's bullshit. Economics and Politics are intimately connected.
2. There are only certain combinations that will work.
3. Any socialist society will not guarantee individual freedom.
3. Economic Freedom
1. Is an end to itself in the broader understanding of freedom
2. Is necessary to have political (individual freedom)
3. "Intellectuals in particular have a strong bias against regarding [economic] freedom as important. They tend to express contempt for what they regard as material aspects of life, and to regard their own pursuit of allegedly higher values as on a different plant of significance and as deserving of special attention."
4. Most citizens think that economic freedom is as important as personal freedom:
1. Someone who is forced to spend 10% of his income on Social Security is being deprived of his personal freedom. [Someone who is forced to do business with someone whom he doesn't want to (for whatever reason) is being deprived of his personal freedom.]
   
2. So is the person who needs to have a license to operate a business.
   
3. So is the person who can't charge as high (or low) a price as he wants.
4. Bottom line: Economic freedom is an important part of Freedom.
5. No society has every had a large amount of personal freedom that also didn't have a lot of economic freedom. (If PF --> EF = If No EF --> No PF)
6. The typical state of mankind is tyranny, servitude, and misery.
7. The 20th century is an exception and the political freedom accompanied the development of the free market. (So to of the Golden Age of Greece and early Roman era)
8. But you can have EF w/o PF. Fascist Italy, Spain and Germany. [Cuba]
   
9. Bentham and Philosophical Radicals beleived people would vote for free-markets, that Political freedom would lead to Economic Freedom. They were right.
   

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Brush up on world history. Review each civilization/country/government with regards to the amount of economic and personal freedom they had.




Look up history of the free-market. When did it develop? How does the 20th century compare to throughout all history? Were the Golden Age of Greece and early Roman era free-markets? Did they have large amounts of political freedom?

Look up % of the world living in relative states of freedom.

What are some examples of hypocritical stances professors have vis-a-vis intellectual pursuits vs. business ones?

http://www.reason.com/news/show/118175.html
http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-pjo061897.html

John adds he thinks it was Milton Friedman who came up with the absolutely brilliant argument of "What would intellectuals do if we said we don't need all these books on competing theories of the same topic. What a waste of resources! The government should figure what which is right and then make all books equal."