Brian's Answer to Milton Friedman

One of the conservatives (libertarians, actually) that I respect most is Milton Friedman. He frequently uses things like "evidence" and "logic" to make his points and unlike other so-called conservative thinkers, is not living in an world of his own.

In his manifesto Free to Choose Friedman points out that the way government programs are administered guarantees greater inefficiency than the market. To summarize his thinking: Social programs take money from one group of people (taxpayers), place it in the hands of a second (civil servants) who then spend it on a third group (beneficiaries). Since the money passes through so many hands, there is little incentive among the different participants to see that the money is spent wisely, argues Friedman. Well, that might be true, but the modern corporation acts in almost the same exact way. Just replace taxpayers with investors, civil servants with managers and beneficiaries with employees and contractors. For those who think that the interests of the managerial elite and the firm are the same and their fortunes are linked, just remember that a great many executives have made a killing while their enterprises were completely destroyed.