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Free to Choose: A Personal Statement is a 1980 book by economists Milton and Rose D. Friedman, accompanied by a ten-part series broadcast on public television, that advocates free market principles. It was primarily a response to an earlier landmark book and television series The Age of Uncertainty , by the noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith .
Friedman advocated for free markets which undermined "political centralization and political control". [ 208 ] Because of his involvement with the government of Chile, which was a dictatorship at the time of his visit, there were international protests, spanning from Sweden to America when Friedman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1976.
A free market does not directly require the existence of competition; however, it does require a framework that freely allows new market entrants. Hence, competition in a free market is a consequence of the conditions of a free market, including that market participants not be obstructed from following their profit motive.
Friedman introduced the theory in a 1970 essay for The New York Times titled "A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits". [2] In it, he argued that a company has no social responsibility to the public or society; its only responsibility is to its shareholders. [2]
Friedman says that this is the only true solution to the balance of trade 'problem'. v. Fiscal Policy Friedman argues against the continual government spending justified to "balance the wheel" and help the economy to continue to grow. On the contrary, federal government expenditures make the economy less, not more stable.
The most significant alternative to a free market is what is known as a command economy. This was the model of the former Soviet Union, which established national production goals based on its ...
Classical political economy is popularly associated with the idea that free markets can regulate themselves. [ 6 ] Classical economists and their immediate predecessors reoriented economics away from an analysis of the ruler's personal interests to broader national interests.
[3]: 116 Friedman argued that free markets and liberal democracy are inseparable, that the market guarantees basic political freedoms by ensuring that alternatives are always available (e.g. alternative employment options or alternative goods), guarantees equality by divorcing economic activities from anything unrelated to an individual's ...