Categories: All - government - individual - reality - myths

by Matthias Behrends 4 years ago

317

Friedman, Milton (1977): Milton Friedman Speaks - Myths That Conceal Reality: Free To Choose Network.

This piece presents a speech by Milton Friedman addressing the pervasive myths in society and their impact on perceptions of reality. Friedman uses the analogy of a myth being like an air mattress—

Friedman, Milton (1977): Milton Friedman Speaks - Myths That Conceal Reality: Free To Choose Network.

Friedman, Milton (1977): Milton Friedman Speaks - Myths That Conceal Reality: Free To Choose Network.

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Hoover Institution

Last checked 10.01.2020

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Abstract

Quotations & Comments

“[…] if we continue on the road we have been going, if we continue to rely more and more on government and less and less on the individual, we are condemned to a future of tyranny and misery.” –Milton Friedman
“Someone once wrote, and I’m not sure who it was, that a myth is like an air mattress: there’s nothing in it but it’s wonderfully comfortable, and deflation causes an uncomfortable jolt. Well my purpose today is to give you that jolt.” –Milton Friedman
“When myths get established and are adopted they tend to be so strongly held, they tend to become so much a part of you, that when anyone comes along and differs with them and contradicts them, he risks automatically being dismissed as a crackpot.” –Milton Friedman
“I am encouraged in this venture by another quotation, one which comes from a nineteenth-century American humorist by the name of Josh Billings who wrote somewhere, ‘It ain’t what people know that causes trouble, it’s what they know that ain’t so.’” –Milton Friedman
Debunking common myths

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