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'''Milton Friedman''' (1912–2006) was an American economist at the University of Chicago, leader of the monetarist counter-revolution, Nobel laureate (1976), and the most influential propagandist of free-market capitalism in the late 20th century.
'''Milton Friedman''' is the pencil guy — and his own pencil parable proves planning exists.


== Doctrines ==
== The self-own ==
* Monetarism: inflation is "always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon"; central banks should target money supply, not employment.
Haz on the "I, Pencil" bit ([https://infrared-transcripts.pages.dev/en/kick/infrared/5e76e0d7-c4cc-459e-b8b1-65ade98827ae/ MASSIVE DEBATE ROYALE stream]):
* Permanent income hypothesis; natural rate of unemployment — attacking Keynesian demand management.
* ''Capitalism and Freedom'' (1962) and ''Free to Choose'' (1980): competitive capitalism as necessary for political freedom; school vouchers, floating exchange rates, volunteer army, negative income tax.
* "The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits" (1970).


## Practice
> "I know Milton Friedman is cringe, but he was kind of right about something — the pencil is made of materials whose origin is so vast in scale... you could say you don't need centralization, but objectively you do. Objectively these supply chains have to all come together somehow from very disparate origins."
Chicago Boys trained under Friedman's department advised Pinochet's Chile (the "Miracle of Chile"), and shock-therapy regimes worldwide — the pattern Naomi Klein called "disaster capitalism": crisis as window for marketization.


== Critique ==
That's the whole game: Friedman pointed at the globally coordinated pencil and said "look, no planner!" — while describing a planner so vast it doesn't need a name. The market didn't coordinate the pencil; capital did, through monopoly supply chains, and price just hides who's holding the whip ([[Capitalist Socialism]], [[We already live in socialism]]).
Monetarism collapsed empirically (money-demand instability in the 1980s); its legacy survives as central-bank inflation targeting. For the left, Friedman represents the friendly face of class war from above see also [[Murray N. Rothbard]], [[Hans Hermann-Hoppe]] for the radicalized lineage.
 
== The school ==
Same story as [[Friedrich August Hayek]]: after Marx finished classical political economy, the bourgeoisie needed pseudoscience, and Friedman was the salesman Chicago School, monetarism, Pinochet's economic program.
 
== See also ==
* [[Economic Calculation Problem]]


== References ==
== References ==
<references/>
<references/>


[[Category:Economics]][[Category:Chicago School]]
[[Category:Economics]][[Category:People]][[Category:American politics]]

Latest revision as of 11:03, 21 August 2026

Milton Friedman is the pencil guy — and his own pencil parable proves planning exists.

The self-own

Haz on the "I, Pencil" bit (MASSIVE DEBATE ROYALE stream):

> "I know Milton Friedman is cringe, but he was kind of right about something — the pencil is made of materials whose origin is so vast in scale... you could say you don't need centralization, but objectively you do. Objectively these supply chains have to all come together somehow from very disparate origins."

That's the whole game: Friedman pointed at the globally coordinated pencil and said "look, no planner!" — while describing a planner so vast it doesn't need a name. The market didn't coordinate the pencil; capital did, through monopoly supply chains, and price just hides who's holding the whip (Capitalist Socialism, We already live in socialism).

The school

Same story as Friedrich August Hayek: after Marx finished classical political economy, the bourgeoisie needed pseudoscience, and Friedman was the salesman — Chicago School, monetarism, Pinochet's economic program.

See also

References