2006 Ron Paul 100:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to
support H. Res. 1089, a resolution honoring
Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman was one of
Americas greatest champions of liberty.
Launching a career as a public intellectual at
a time when dissenters from the reigning
Keynesian paradigm where viewed as the
equivalent of members of the Flat Earth Society,
Milton Friedman waged an oftentimes
lonely intellectual battle on behalf of free markets
and individual liberty in the fifties and sixties.
As the economic crisis of the seventies
caused by high taxes, high spending, and inflation
vindicated Friedmans critiques of interventionism,
his influence grew — not because
he moved to the mainstream but because the
mainstream moved toward him. Friedman
served as an advisor to Presidents Nixon and
Ford and as a member of President Reagans
Council of Economic Advisors. In 1976, Friedman
was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.
2006 Ron Paul 100:2
Milton Friedmans most notable contributions to economic theory where in the area of
monetary policy. His 1963 work A Monetary
History of the United States 1857–1960, coauthored
with Anna Schwartz, was among the
first works to emphasize the role Federal Reserve
policy played in causing the Great Depression.
As Friedman said, The Great Depression,
like most other periods of severe unemployment,
was produced by government
mismanagement rather than by any inherent
instability of the private economy.
2006 Ron Paul 100:3
Friedmans work showed that inflation is not a result of markets but is, as he memorably
put it, always and everywhere a monetary
phenomenon. Friedman was the major originator
and theoretician of monetarism. Friedman
recommended restricting the Federal Reserves
authority to increasing the quantity of
money by a fixed yearly amount. While
monetarism is far from the ideal free-market
monetary system, Milton Friedman deserves
credit for focusing the attention of economists
on the Federal Reserves responsibility for inflation.
2006 Ron Paul 100:4
While he is mainly known for his contributions to economic theory and his advocacy of
free markets, Milton Friedman considered his
advocacy against the draft, cumulating in his
work as a member of President Nixons Commission
on an All-Volunteer Force, his major
policy achievement. Milton Friedmans opposition
to the draft was in part based on economic
principles, but was mainly motivated by
his moral commitment to freedom. I ask unanimous
consent to insert the attached article,
Milton Friedman: A Tribute, by David R.
Henderson, which details Milton Friedmans
efforts against the draft, into the record.
2006 Ron Paul 100:5
Unlike many free market economists who downplay their opposition to government of
encroachments on personal liberty in order to
appear respectable, Friedman never hesitated
to take controversial stands in favor of
liberty. Thus Friedman was one of the most
outspoken critics of the federal war on drugs
and an early critic of government licensing of
professionals. Friedman also never allowed
fear of losing access to power stop him from
criticizing politicians who betrayed economic
liberty. For example, his status as an advisor
to President Richard Nixon did not stop him
from criticizing Nixons imposition of wage and
price controls.
2006 Ron Paul 100:6
Milton Friedmans greatest contribution to liberty may have been his work to educate the
public about free market economics. Milton
Friedmans 1962 work Capitalism and Freedom,
introduced millions of people to the freedom
philosophy, and it remains one of the
most popular, and influential, pro-freedom
books in the world.
2006 Ron Paul 100:7
In 1980, Milton Friedman collaborated with his wife Rose on a television series, Free to
Choose. The series, and the accompanying
best-selling book, remain among the best introductions
to the benefits of economic liberty,
and rivals Capitalism and Freedom in popularity.
One of my favorite moments of the
show is when Milton Friedman compares the
robust free market economy of Hong Kong
with the then stagnant economy of communist
China.
2006 Ron Paul 100:8
On a personal note, I was honored to receive Milton Friedmans endorsement of my
congressional campaign in 1996. One particular
quote from his endorsement exemplifies
how Milton Friedmans commitment to the free
market was rooted in a recognition that a society
that respects the dignity and worth of
every individual is impossible without limited
government, private property, and sound
money: We very badly need to have more
Representatives in the House who understand
in a principled way the importance of property
rights and religious freedom for the preservation
and extension of human freedom in general
. . .
2006 Ron Paul 100:9
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to pay tribute to Milton Friedmans tireless efforts on behalf of
human liberty, and I urge all my colleagues to
join me in supporting H. Res. 1089.
[From ANTIWAR.COM, Nov. 20, 2006]
MILTON FRIEDMAN: A TRIBUTE
In the course of his [General Westmorelands]
testimony, he made the statement
that he did not want to command an army of
mercenaries. I [Milton Friedman] stopped
him and said, General, would you rather
command an army of slaves? He drew himself
up and said, I dont like to hear our patriotic
volunteers referred to as mercenaries.
But I went on to say, If they are
mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor,
and you, sir, are a mercenary general;
we are served by mercenary physicians, we
use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat
from a mercenary butcher. That was the
last that we heard from the general about
mercenaries. — Milton and Rose Friedman,
Two Lucky People, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1998, p. 380.
2006 Ron Paul 100:11
In May 1970, a few days after graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a
major in mathematics, I flew to Chicago to
look into getting a Ph.D. in economics at the
University of Chicago. While there, I went to
visit Milton Friedman and he invited me
into his office. I had a sense that he had been
through this routine before — talking to an
idealistic young person showing up and
wanting an autograph on his copy of Capitalism
and Freedom and, beyond that, simply
wanting to meet and talk to him. But he
didnt treat our meeting as routine; we had a
real talk for about 10 minutes. When I told
him that Id initially been attracted to libertarianism
by reading Ayn Rand, he told me
that while Rand was well worth reading,
there were many other people worth reading
too, and I shouldnt get stuck on her. He also
stated, Make politics an avocation, not a
vocation. Both were good pieces of advice.
2006 Ron Paul 100:12
The advice didnt stop there. I ended up getting my Ph.D. at UCLA and going to my
first academic job as an assistant professor
at the University of Rochesters Graduate
School of Management. From then on, I
wrote Milton a couple of times a year and he
always wrote back, sometimes writing in the
margins of my letter to comment on my
questions and thoughts. When I contemplated
my first major career change —
leaving academia to work at a think tank —
he advised me strongly against it (I didnt
take this advice), referring to himself as my
Dutch uncle. I had never heard the term
before and didnt bother to look it up until
writing this piece, but I understood what he
meant from the context: a Dutch uncle is
someone who gives you tough love, holding
you to high standards because of a benevolent
regard for your well-being.
2006 Ron Paul 100:13
But heres the bigger point: with his steady and passionate work to end the military
draft, Milton Friedman was the Dutch uncle
of every young man in the United States. Or
even better, he was like a favorite uncle that
theyd never even met. He cared more for
them than any president, any general, or any
defense secretary has ever cared. How so? Because
he wanted every young man to be free
to choose whether to join the military or
not.
2006 Ron Paul 100:14
Milton Friedmans work against the draft began in December 1966, when he gave a presentation
at a four-day conference at the University
of Chicago. Various prominent and
less-prominent academics, politicians, and
activists had been invited. Papers had been
commissioned, and the authors gave summaries,
after which the discussion was open
to all. Fortunately, the discussion was transcribed.
The papers and discussions appear in
a book edited by sociologist Sol Tax and titled
The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives.
The invitees included two young
anti-draft congressmen, Robert Kastenmeier
(D–Wisc.) and Donald Rumsfeld (R–Ill.), and
one pro-draft senator, Edward Kennedy (D-
Mass.). Also attending were pro-draft anthropologist
Margaret Mead and anti-draft
economists Milton Friedman and Walter Oi.
Friedman gave the general economic and
philosophical case for a voluntary military
in his presentation, Why Not a Voluntary
Army? Friedman pointed out that the draft
is a tax on young men. He stated:
2006 Ron Paul 100:15
When a young man is forced to serve at $45 a week, including the cost of his keep, of
his uniforms, and his dependency allowances,
and there are many civilian opportunities
available to him at something like $100 a
week, he is paying $55 a week in an implicit
tax. . . . And if you were to add to those
taxes in kind, the costs imposed on universities
and colleges; of seating, housing, and
entertaining young men who would otherwise
be doing productive work; if you were to
add to that the costs imposed on industry by
the fact that they can only offer young men
who are in danger of being drafted stopgap
jobs, and cannot effectively invest money in
training them; if you were to add to that the
costs imposed on individuals of a financial
kind by their marrying earlier or having
children at an earlier stage, and so on; if you
were to add all these up, there is no doubt at
all in my mind that the cost of a volunteer
force, correctly calculated, would be very
much smaller than the amount we are now
spending in manning our Armed Forces.
2006 Ron Paul 100:16
Reading through the whole Sol Tax volume, with all the papers and transcripts of
the discussion, I had the sense that there was
a coalescing of views over the four days, as
people from various parts of the ideological
spectrum found that they had in common a
strong antipathy to the draft and found also
that the economists made a surprisingly
strong economic case. Both Friedmans
speech and his various comments at the conference
still make compelling reading. One
of his best rhetorical flourishes was his criticism
of the charge that those who advocate
ending the draft are advocating a mercenary
army. Youll recognize the same kind
of argument he used against Westmoreland
in the lead quote of this article. Friedman
said:
2006 Ron Paul 100:17
Now, when anybody starts talking about this [an all-volunteer force] he immediately
shifts language. My army is volunteer, your
army is professional, and the enemys army
is mercenary. All these three words mean
exactly the same thing. I am a volunteer
professor, I am a mercenary professor, and I
am a professional professor. And all you people
around here are mercenary professional
people. And I trust you realize that. Its always
a puzzle to me why people should think
that the term mercenary somehow has a
negative connotation. I remind you of that
wonderful quotation of Adam Smith when he
said, You do not owe your daily bread to the
benevolence of the baker, but to his proper
regard for his own interest. And this is
much more broadly based. In fact, I think
mercenary motives are among the least unattractive
that we have. (p. 366)
2006 Ron Paul 100:18
In the margin of my 35-year-old, dog-eared copy of the Sol Tax book containing this
passage, I wrote one word: Wow! This is
rhetoric at its best, a tight argument passionately
stated. When I read this at about
age 18, just a year before meeting Friedman
in his office, I felt cared-for. Fortunately,
being Canadian, I wasnt vulnerable to the
draft. But I had the thought that if I had
grown up in United States, I would be so
thankful that here was this man, himself
well beyond draft age and who could probably
figure out how to get his son out of the
draft, and yet who cared enough to be out in
front on this issue.
2006 Ron Paul 100:19
Two of Friedmans comments about this conference are worth noting. Writing some 30
years later, Friedman noted that the 74 invited
participants included essentially everyone
who had written or spoken at all extensively
on either side of the controversy
about the draft, as well as a number of students.
(Two Lucky People, p. 377.) Friedmans
other comment is also worth citing:
2006 Ron Paul 100:20
I have attended many conferences. I have never attended any other that had so dramatic
an effect on the participants. A straw
poll taken at the outset of the conference recorded
two-thirds of the participants in favor
of the draft; a similar poll at the end, two-
thirds opposed. I believe that this conference
was the key event that started the ball rolling
decisively toward ending the draft. (p.
378.)
2006 Ron Paul 100:21
Friedman didnt stop there. He wrote a number of articles in his tri-weekly column
in Newsweek making the case against the
draft. Friedman was one of 15 people chosen
for Nixons Commission on the All-Volunteer
Force. By his estimate, five started off being
against the draft, five in favor, and five on
the fence. By the end, the Commission was
able to come out with a 14–0 consensus in
favor of ending the draft. Black leader Roy
Wilkins, in a Feb. 6, 1970 letter to Nixon,
stated he had been unable to attend many of
the meetings due to a major illness and,
therefore, could not support its specific recommendations;
Wilkins did state, however,
that he endorsed the idea of moving toward
an all-volunteer armed force. (The Report of
the Presidents Commission on an All-Volunteer
Armed Force, New York: Collier Books,
1970; letter from Roy Wilkins.)
2006 Ron Paul 100:22
It was at one of these meetings that Friedman put Westmoreland on the spot with his
comeback about slaves. Knowing that Friedman
was persuasive and focused and also a
warm human being, I credit him with having
swung at least a few of the Commission
members in his direction. And although
Nixon took his sweet time acting on the recommendations,
finally, at the start of his
second term, he let the draft expire.
2006 Ron Paul 100:23
Friedman kibitzed in his Newsweek column, never letting up. He once wrote that
the draft is almost the only issue on which
I have engaged in any extensive personal
lobbying
with members of the House and Senate.
(Milton Friedman, An Economists
Protest, 2nd ed., Glen Ridge, N.J.: Thomas
Horton and Daughters, 1975, p. 188.)
2006 Ron Paul 100:24
And Friedman stuck around as an opponent of the draft when the going got tough.
In the late 1970s, high inflation caused a serious
drop in real military pay and a consequent
increase in difficulty meeting recruiting
quotas. Of all the threats to bring
back the draft in the last 32 years, the threat
in 1979 to 1980 was the most serious. Sen.
Sam Nunn (D–Ga.) held hearings with the
goal of building support for the draft and, at
least, registration for a future draft. Hoover
economist Martin Anderson organized an important
conference on the draft at the Hoover
Institution in November 1979 and invited
the top proponents and opponents of the
draft. (For the papers and transcript of the
discussion, see Martin Anderson, ed., Registration
and the Draft: Proceedings of the
Hoover-Rochester Conference on the All-Volunteer
Force, Stanford, California: Hoover
Institution Press, 1982.) Friedman was one of
the attendees and, at the end, debated Congressman
Pete McCloskey on the draft. It
was actually the weakest performance Ive
ever seen by Friedman, but Friedmans
weak is still pretty good.
2006 Ron Paul 100:25
In 1980, in response to the threat from Sam Nunn, I wrote and circulated the following
Economists Statement in Opposition to
the Draft:
2006 Ron Paul 100:26
We, the undersigned, oppose moves toward the reimposition of the draft. The draft
would be a more costly way of maintaining
the military than an all-volunteer force.
Those who claim that a draft costs less than
a volunteer military cite as a savings the
lower wages that the government can get
away with paying draftees. But they leave
out the burden imposed on the draftees
themselves. Since a draft would force many
young people to delay or forego entirely
other activities valuable to them and to the
rest of society, the real cost of military manpower
would be substantially more than the
wages draftees would be paid. Saying that a
draft would reduce the cost of the military is
like saying that the pyramids were cheap because
they were built with slave labor.
2006 Ron Paul 100:27
Friedmans speed at signing made it much easier, Im sure, to get the signatures of almost
300 other prominent and not-so-prominent
economists, including Kenneth
Boulding, Harold Demsetz, David Friedman,
Alan Greenspan, Donald McCloskey, William
Meckling, Allen H. Meltzer, James C. Miller
III, William A. Niskanen, Mancur Olson, Sam
Peltzman, Murray Rothbard, Jeremy J.
Siegel, Vernon Smith, Beryl W. Sprinkel, Jerome
Stein, and James L. Sweeney.
2006 Ron Paul 100:28
The statement, with about 150 signatures, was published as a full-page ad in Libertarian
Review, Inquiry, and The Progressive.
2006 Ron Paul 100:29
Milton Friedman and I had our differences about foreign policy. I tried, in vain, to persuade
him to be against the first Gulf war.
Even there, though, he publicly supported, in
an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle,
my economic argument against the war.
He stated, Hendersons analysis is correct.
There is no justification for intervention on
grounds of oil (Jonathan Marshall, Economists
Say Iraqs Threat to U.S. Oil Supply Is
Exaggerated, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct.
29, 1990.) Friedman did oppose the second
Gulf war, as evidenced in an interview in the
Wall Street Journal, in which he called it,
correctly, aggression. (Tunku
Varadarajan, The Romance of Economics,
Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2006; page A10).
2006 Ron Paul 100:30
As far as I know, though, Friedman did not oppose the second Gulf war publicly when it
mattered most — that is, before the March
2003 invasion. But on the draft, Friedman
never wavered. For that, many young American
men owe him a lot.
2006 Ron Paul 100:31
Two weeks ago, I attended a conference in Guatemala at which it was announced that
Friedman had had a bad fall and was in the
hospital. The person who announced it, Bob
Chitester, producer of the Friedmans 1980
television series, Free to Choose, handed out
buttons that read, Have you thanked Milton
Friedman today? Thanks, Uncle Miltie.