‘Capitalism and Freedom’ Unmasked

- by Stephen Lendman
10/4/07
http://tmars.iwarp.com/theMagazine/archive/07/lendeman071004.html

An era ended November 16, 2006 when economist Milton Friedman died. A torrent of eulogies followed. The Wall Street Journal mourned his loss with the same tribute he credulously used when Ronald Reagan died saying "few people in human history have contributed more to the achievement of human freedom."
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Rarely had so much praise been given anyone so undeserving in light of the human wreckage his legacy left strewn everywhere.
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He was a vocal opponent of trade unions, claimed they were "of little importance (historically in advancing) worker (rights and gains) in the United States," and ignored clear evidence to the contrary…
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For Friedman, we're on our own, "free to choose," but unequally matched against corporate giants and the privileged with their advantages. The rest of us are unequally endowed and governed by the principle, "To each according to what he and the instruments he owns produces," in a savage world where economic freedom trumps all other kinds. This was right from Friedman's 1962 laissez-faire manifesto, "Capitalism and Freedom," that's long on free market triumphalism and void on its effects on real people. He opposed social or any market-interfering democracy, an egalitarian society, government providing essential services, workers free from bosses, citizens from dictatorship and countries from colonialism. Instead, he perversely promoted economic freedom as a be-all-and-end-all, limited government, and profit-making as the essence of democracy. He supported unfettered free markets with political debate confined to minor issues unrelated to the distribution of goods and services he wanted left to the free-wheeling marketplace.This was Friedman's best of all possible worlds with people in it no different than disposable commodities and government not obligated to fulfill its minimum constitutionally-mandated function as stated in the Preamble and Article I, Section 8. It's that "The Congress shall have power to....provide....for (the) general welfare of the United States" - the so-called welfare clause Friedman believed conflicted with "capitalism and freedom" and our "freedom to choose" that ranked above the law of the land for him.
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