Milton Friedman was pure genius

Of late I have been watching some old videos of Milton Friedman interviews and Q+As including this one and I have to give the guy credit.  I'm impressed at his logic and his ability to sidestep the emotional baggage which is the control mechanism by which con men manipulate their well meaning but misguided patsies. So many of the things he says just seem like common sense to me even though I do not possess formal economic training.  I sometimes wonder if not having been indoctrinated by government controlled college is to be credited to a large degree for this.  A couple of Friedman's points from the linked video that were of special note are:

- When women and minorities demand that government create laws that require corporations to pay them the same as those who the corporations would rather (for whatever reason) hire, they effectively eliminate the ability of companies to hire from these minority ranks at lower pay for use as a competitive advantage in the market place.  While Friedman doesn't say it directly, on the job experience is the best way to achieve things that companies want to pay higher rates for and if you don't work because nobody will hire you with whatever perceived (be they real or imagined) shortcomings they see in you, you will never get the experience and resume needed to command higher prices later.  You will also never have a chance to prove that they were wrong in short changing you in the first place.  Without the ability to offer employers and incentive for taking a chance on you, the lower caste is effectively shut out by government regulation.

Coming from a poor family with college not a viable option, I took low paying jobs in my youth and used them to build up my skills and my resume.  Even without college I eventually floated up to the income level of those graduating in good standing from good schools.  In other words, if government does not stand in the way then eventually a person will be allowed to rise based on whatever gifts were given to them genetically.

At one level of abstraction higher, what he is really saying is that when people ask the government to legislate some kind of morality, even if it is a false morality planted in the minds of the people though use of propaganda, the people are effectively ensuring that the fairness that they desire to see will be pushed out significantly in time.

- Friedman points out that despite public statements that governments are anti-monopoly, monopolies generally only last very long with the support of government.  This only makes sense.  If a subgroup of the herd, even if only by random chance, takes trail A instead of trail B it might find a lush pasture at the end of it.  As long as these few members have monopoly access to these lush resources, that faction will prosper relative to the rest of the herd. 

In a free market, this monopoly cannot last long as others will quickly determine that the subgroup has found something worth going after and they will move to share in the exploitation of the beneficial situation.  Once there is competition for the resource, the first on scene monopoly advantage is gone.  But, if government is involved it can make a deal with first on scene to block off further access in order to keep the monopoly alive.  Why would governments do this?  Clearly for the benefit of their few members at the expense of the rest of us.  That is just human nature.  We are predisposed to opportunism.  Said differently, never give a sucker an even break.

Thus, when you see a long standing monopoly, always look for the government involvement which sustained it.  Importantly, Friedman listed the NYSE as a rare example of a long standing monopoly which exists without government support.  He seemed genuinely confused at how this could happen.  However, we now understand that the revolving door between Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other large beneficiaries of the NYSE means that there most definitely is government support for this monopoly and it will remain so until the government sees no further use in supporting the monopoly at which time it will join the ranks of all other private sector monopolies.

Of course the greatest monopoly of all, the one that most matters to the welfare of hard working people, is the government's monopoly over the money supply.  Get rid of that one overarching monopoly and we would soon find that many of the monopolies that exist under it would also collapse.  Fake money allows government to set its own price on people's labor.  There is no and can be no real free market until that thing which makes the whole world go 'round (money) is itself freed from the con game of fiat currency and especially fractional reserved banking.