Milton Friedman: How did Markets Survive?

I've been listening to Russ Roberts pod casts at Econ Talk, which has a pretty extensive archive section. I looked through it, and found one with Milton Friedman. This part of that podcast has had a profound impact on me:

Milton Friedman: But it's always been true that business is not a friend of a free market. I have given a lecture from time to time under the title Suicidal Impulses of the Business Community... It's in the self-interest of the business community to get government on its side. It's in the self-interest of a particular business.[...]

But the real puzzle—puzzle isn't quite the right word—the real problem here is where do you find the support for free markets? If free markets weren't so damn efficient, they could never have survived because they have so many enemies and so few friends. People think of capitalism or free markets as something that obviously is supported by business. People think that if a business party is a party in politics, it will promote free market. But that's wrong. It will be in the self-interest of individual businesses to promote a tariff here and a tariff there, to promote the use of ethanol—

Russ Roberts: Special regulations for its competitor that apply just by chance to its competitors but not to itself—

Milton Friedman: That's right.

Russ Roberts: —or that they already comply with but their competitors don't happen to comply with.

It's insights like these that attracts me to Economics, and keep me coming back for more...


Update: Here's a link to an article Friedman wrote on this subject at the Cato Institute.

Pollution Didn't Begin in 1960...

In the spirit of Dr. Boudreaux, here is a letter I sent to the Washington Post:

In his letter, “Where are conservatives' conservation efforts?” (Sept. 9th), Mr. Kennard makes in interesting connection between Hayek’s warnings about government interventions into complex market systems and human intervention into the complex environmental systems. However, he should have quit when he was ahead.

If Mr. Kennard looked back at history, he might discover that the internal combustion engine automobile was one of the single greatest advancements in pollution reduction in the 20th century (produced by in the marketplace, mind you). Before then, streets were lined with filth and the air filled with methane from horses which people used to get around.

Mr. Kennard then indicts “Conservatives” to come up with his solutions to his perceived, “problem” because they oppose “Liberal” “solutions”. My answer is to see the above.

Sincerely,
Christopher J. York
Student, George Mason University, Economics M.A.