To the Benefit of the Ordinary Person

"The rich in Ancient Greece would have benefited little from modern plumbing: running servants replaced running water. Television and radio -- the patricians of Rome could enjoy the leading musicians and actors in their home, could have the leading artists as domestic retainers. Ready-to-wear clothing, supermarkets -- all these and many other modern developments would have added little to their life. They would have welcomed the improvements in transportation and in medicine, but for the rest, the great achievements of Western capitalism have redounded primarily to the benefit of the ordinary person."

Milton Friedman in Free to Choose
Quoted in A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell

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