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Haggin vs. Friedman

The Spokesman-Review

In response to Bart Haggin’s letter to the editor, “Free market is a fallacy,” Dec. 21: He referred to, “those crazy economists,” Milton Friedman.

I say it’s time to read what the Nobel Prize-winning economist had to say about how money is spent. From his book “Capitalism and Freedom,” published 1962:

“When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful how much he spends and how he spends it. When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on. When a man spends someone else’s money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn’t care how much he spends. And when a man spends someone else’s money on someone else, he doesn’t care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that’s government for you.”

So just how does your/my money fit with high-principled government regulation?

Allen Wolter

Spokane

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