Milton Monday #6: Freedom Helps Everyone

Milton Monday #5: Robbing the Rich Doesn't Help the Poor

Milton Monday #3: Why Soaking The Rich Doesn't Work

Milton Monday #2: Monopolies

Another common myth is that government needs to step in to break up monopolies, but often times government is the cause of monopolies. Either they, by law, are the sole provider of a good or service (public education or first class mail for example) or they put in place regulations that stifle competition.
Video here.

What's interesting, is that he may have been wrong about De Beers as well, as their diamond monopoly seems to not be as effective as it once was. They are a rare exception, in that most diamonds are found only within a small, geographic location, known in ecnonomics as a "geographical monopoly". For example, if the only oil well in the world were found in my backyard, then I would have a monopoly on oil.

Milton Monday #1: Greed

I'm going to start a new feature on my blog I'm going to call "Milton Mondays". Milton Friedman was one of the most influential and articulate free market, capitalalist thinkers of our time. He was an economics professor at the University of Chicago and an advisor to President Reagan. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2006. Amongst other things, he had a knack for debunking some of mythical flaws many people point out in a free market system. In other words, he demonstrates how most of the time, government is the problem, not the solution. There are many video clips of Dr. Friedman out there that I'd like to share, and this one is one of my favorites: