Skip to main content
77011_a_0007236_r01_pt01 pop out player
Item Title Equality and Freedom in the Free Enterprise System
DateMay 01, 1978
RightsUsed with permission. This copy is provided for educational and research purposes only. No publication, further reproduction, or reuse of copies, beyond fair use, may be made without the express written permission of the copyright owner.
Description

Delivered under the sponsorship of NASA at the College of William and Mary, Newport News Campus.

Brochure summary:

If the government has the power and responsibility to promote equality of income, then how do we define the concept of equality? Jefferson, in his Declaration of Independence, meant equality before the law, a concept necessary precisely because people are not equal in tastes, values, or capacities. Later, equality came to mean equality of opportunity--the chance to run a fair race. Within a free market system, both definitions are consistent with other values: Efficiency, justice, and liberty. More recently, equality has come to mean equality of outcome. Equality of outcome cannot be mandated, cannot be insured. Any serious attempt to achieve it would destroy freedom.

"Any society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy byproduct, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality."

Title of Larger Work Milton Friedman Speaks Milton Friedman Speaks lecture: Equality and Freedom in the Free Enterprise System
Collection Title Milton Friedman papers
Speaker Friedman, Milton (1912-2006)
NotesSee also Collected Works of Milton Friedman, object 2016C21.0379.
Publication Type(s)
FormatSound Recording
Medium lectures
Record Number77011.233
Hoover ID77011_a_0007236
overlay image