Jeremiah, Milton Friedman, and Liberty

On Wednesday, July 11, 2007, Bob Chitester was the speaker at the monthly meeting of the Bastiat Society. His topic was “Jeremiah, Milton Friedman, and Liberty.”

Some excerpts from his comments follow:

Milton Friedman was a modern Jeremiah. His God, if you will, was liberty. The citizens of the United States had a covenant with freedom, in which they had lost faith. He was determined to sound the alarm. He never concerned himself with what others would think of him.
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Freedom is not at the top of business leaders’ agenda, although they profess otherwise.
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Freedom is not at the top of politicians’ agenda although they profess otherwise.
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Have any of you stood up and said it’s immoral -- taxing workers struggling to make their own mortgage payments, to help a few business people ---- and advance some political careers? If there is a principle underlying these kinds of schemes it is one I do not wish to embrace.
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People should be free to gamble if they wish, but the government should not be involved and communities should not be going out of their way to help establish gambling facilities.
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If people are going hungry here in Charleston and around this nation, it is not because of lack of food. Even the federal government, who’s own “food bank” effort - food stamps – has been operating for decades, admits that the greatest health problem among poorer members of our society is obesity.
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My passion and the goal of Free to Choose Media, izzit.org and The Idea Channel, is to relate economic freedom, personal freedom, individual freedom and the rule of law to peoples’ personal experience. Our first goal is to make school age children aware of the power of voluntary association and the rule of law to make the world a happier place for all people. Creating awareness of these fundamental values in the next generation of citizens must be part of any effort “save the Republic.”
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Driven by rigorous logic, the use of rhetorical tools through mass media is essential to preserving liberty in a democratic society.
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Don’t use government to force citizens to pay for services they would not freely support. Resist others who want to do so.
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The wealth created by economic freedom is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a better life. We must not forget, or let others forget, that free markets provide not only material well being but the time to explore our inner visions of the beautiful and profound.