Comments on: Learning from Milton Friedman’s Rhetoric

By: Dussault

Dussault — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:09:35 +0000

Milton Friedman is one of the few public figures who seems to speak with class. He voices his opinions in a firm yet neutral manner — he doesn't attempt to attack the character of people with different opinions — and he's not just a diplomat: he has interesting, even fringe, ideas and he's not afraid to voice them. We don't see many people who appeal to conservatives and yet who consider the legalization of pot one of their most important concerns.

By: DDP

DDP — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:59:22 +0000

Monopoly power lies in the fact that it can restrict quantity of a supplied good as well as charge higher prices for that good. The AMA restricts the supply of licensed physicians and other professionals in order to enact higher wage requirements for each member. Unions use the same tactics.

By: angelia110

angelia110 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:54:40 +0000

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By: freedar

freedar — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:16:13 +0000

A reply to the idea of the pricing powers of the AMA. Its quite simple that the institution of licensing does reduce the the amount of competitors in the market, thus the simple law of supply and demand automatically produces a pricing control via the amount of licenses that are allowed.

By: One Way to Reduce Healthcare Costs « Upset Patterns

One Way to Reduce Healthcare Costs « Upset Patterns — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:02:16 +0000

[...] courtesy of Will Wilkinson. [...]

By: Michael Drake

Michael Drake — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:13:51 +0000

Would that more propagandists had such a pleasant bedside manner.

By: Paul_G_Brown

Paul_G_Brown — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:56:49 +0000

I also note, in a slightly giddy follow-up, that what Uncle Milton is saying here NOT that socialized medicine is a Bad Thing(tm). Only that the monopoly power of the AMA is incompatible with a free market for medical services, and that the alternative to centralized control of medicine is the abolition of the AMA.

I suspect our good blog host is being … indirect with his argument. If Champions of Liberty can't make a case for private Police, or a private Fire Department, or a private system of Courts and Arbitration, then perhaps we can't make a case for private doctors, either. This seems to be one outcome of the case Uncle Milton so cogently constructs here.

By: urstoff

urstoff — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:19:07 +0000

Dead on about the nastiness in the comments of Thoma and, also, DeLong. The comments of MR aren't nearly as biting or reactionary, and even the comments of Cafe Hayek don't carry the tone that those of Thoma and Delong do. What about Reason's blog? Lots of fiery outrage at things that seem to be 'obvious right'?

By: MPW

MPW — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:58:14 +0000

I agree with WW on Friedman's temperament, but i think the whole “government this… government that…you're not seriously going to trust the government” rhetoric has dated badly.

By: Paul_G_Brown

Paul_G_Brown — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:10:52 +0000

#begin snark
But, but, but ...

Being a Doctor means you are in possession of knowledge, and that knowledge is as much your property as your BMW or your golf clubs! You want to take away my property rights!

#end snark

Uncle Milton's in fine form here. But .... does anyone else think his impishness in this video is as much the result of the fact he's tilting at a windmill as his charm and intellectual heft? He has about as much chance of persuading the doctors here or of influencing public policy on this question as he has of flapping his arms and launching himself to the moon! Easy to be affable when you're harmless.

Besides. I'm less of a fan of civility than most. It seems strange to me that one can advocate the most heinous crimes, but so long as one does so politely one stays within the pale.

By: Historian Peter Cain on European Attitudes to China « Andrew Smith’s Blog

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:11:31 +0000

[...] Other papers on economic-historical themes at History and Policy include: “The ‘credit crunch’ and the importance of trust” by Geoffrey Hosking; “Equality and incentive: fiscal politics from Gladstone to Brown” by Martin Daunton; and “The real lesson for developing countries from the history of the developed world: ‘freedom to choose’” by Ha-Joon Chang. (I like how Chang’s paper title makes an allusion to this man). [...]

By: Vlad

Vlad — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:07:11 +0000

Re quality, late adoption simply doesn't follow from current licensure practices. Many hospitals *have* adopted the checklist procedure, and AFAIK they didn't face any license-revoking consequences. Neither does it follow that a free market in medicine automatically quicken such adoptions.

Consider the much more dramatic history of antiseptics, where Lister's predecessors were either ignored or attacked outright, and Lister himself had a hard time promoting it.

By: Vlad

Vlad — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:49:44 +0000

In most if not all developed countries medical practice is heavily licensed and regulated, so licensure in itself is unlikely to be the direct cause for this particular US ailment.

By: GilM

GilM — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:24:32 +0000

Great points about Friedman's rhetorical style.

I don't have many heroes, but Friedman is one of them.

Naomi Klein would be much easier to ignore if she hadn't done so much to trash the reputation of this great man who was a real liberal.

By: uknowbetter

uknowbetter — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:05:40 +0000

Rhetoric is racist!