—–Original Message—–
From: JW
Sent: Sat 10/15/2016 4:24 AM
To: Walter Block
Subject: Your conversation with Friedman
Professor Block: I read this entire exchange between you and Milton Friedman: https://mises.org/system/tdf/20_3_4.pdf?file=1&type=document
Rather than resort to words like fanatic and extremist, I think a better description of the battle of your two minds, at bottom, represents the difference between a principled economic philosopher and a pragmatic one. In reading almost all of the writings of Ayn Rand, I can tell you that she abhors pragmatists and after I read her works I did too. For awhile, and then reality sets in, which is that however much respect I may have for principled philosophers, the truth is that they just don’t get much done in the world, so in a lot of ways they might has well of not even existed. Their writings serve as an aspirational framework to strive towards. But real life involves compromise. I know that she would turn over in her grave to hear me say this, but I do think it is true. Furthermore, I believe that the example can be found in financial mathematics and the power of compounding interest, it doesn’t take the other guys money all at once, but boy it sure is powerful over time! She says that a pragmatist regards each decision in life only for the “cash value” it can bring in the range of the moment and in so doing this man betrays his core principles, and yet the problem is that too many principled philosophers collect zero cash and no return on their investments. So in this regard, even though I find you to be an extremely talented articulator of your thoughts, feelings, and convictions in the end I come down on the side of Milton Friedman, as well as Ronald Reagan who said that if someone wants to give you 90% of what you are asking for, they are not your enemy. I agree, take the 90% and move on and live to fight another day, because if you don’t your opponents surely will and your next battle will be even more difficult. At least that way liberty can win little by little until it pushes back the boundaries of collectivism and grinds it into dust. It doesn’t have to win all at once, or not at all. Sincerely; John Woods
Dear JW: I am a Rothbardian on this issue, as I am on virtually all matters Austro-libertarian. Murray was forever agreeing, as do I, with your gradualism, compromise, thesis, at least as a practical matter. It is not for nothing that I am know far and wide (at least in my own mind) as Walter Moderate Block. Yes, if there were a choice between a higher and a lower tax, I would support the lesser mulcting. If there were a choice between a minimum wage of $15 per hour, and one of $10 or $5 per hour, I would prefer either of the latter vis a vis the former. If there were a choice between jailing and a small monetary fine for victimless criminals (drugs, pornography, prostitution) I would opt for the latter. Heck, I was one of the originators of Libertarians for Trump, mainly because I thought, and still think, him far better than Hillary, even though he is of course very imperfect. Of course I greatly appreciate this statement: “Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.” – William Lloyd Garrison. As a matter of theory, the only proper tax is a zero tax. The only proper minimum wage is one set at zero (well, minus infinity; check that, no minimum wage at all). The only proper way to handle drugs, pornography, prostitution is full legalization. It is interesting that Milton was very, very good on things like tariffs, rent control and minimum wage. He didn’t call for any gradualism there; rather for complete elimination. So, with respect, I disagree with your assessment of the difference between me and Milton Friedman. We both supported, for the most part in his case, less government intervention. I urge you to read these excellent articles on him (start with the one by Murray Rothbard; it is by far the best):
Berliner, 1995, 326; Block, 1969, 1999, 2003A, 2003B, 2006, 2010A, 2010B, 2011, 2013; Block and Barnett, 2012-2013; Freidman and Block, 2006; Friedman, 2000; Kinsella, 2009; Lind, 2012; Long, 2006; Marcus, 2007; McChesney, 1991; North, 2012; Kinsella, 2009; Lind, 2012; Machan, 2010; Marcus, 2007; McChesney, 1991; North, 2012; Rand, undated; Rothbard, 2002; Sennholz, 2006; Vance, 1996, 2005; Wapshott, 2012; Wenzel, 2012; Wilcke, 1999
Berliner, Michael S., ed. 1995. Letters of Ayn Rand. New York, N.Y.: Dutton
Block, Walter. 1969. “Against the Volunteer Military,” The Libertarian Forum, August 15, p. 4; http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1969/1969_08_15.pdf
Block, Walter. 1999. “The Gold Standard: A Critique of Friedman, Mundell, Hayek, Greenspan,” Managerial Finance, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 15-33; http://giorgio.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do?containerType=Issue&containerId=13529; http://www.mises.org/etexts/goldcritique.pdf
Block, Walter. 2003A. “Private property rights, economic freedom, and Professor Coase: A Critique of Friedman, McCloskey, Medema and Zorn,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer, pp. 923-951;
Block, Walter E. 2003B. “Private property rights, economic freedom, and Professor Coase: A Critique of Friedman, McCloskey, Medema and Zorn,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer, pp. 923-951; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2782/is_3_26/ai_n6640908/?tag=content
Block, Walter. 2006. “Milton Friedman, RIP.” November 16.
http://www.mises.org/story/2393; http://blog.freeny.org/?p=818
Block, Walter E. 2010A. “Milton Friedman on Intolerance: A Critique.” Libertarian Papers; Vol. 2, No. 41; http://mises.org/daily/6208/Friedman-on-Intolerance-A-Critique;
http://libertarianpapers.org/2010/41-block-milton-friedman-on-intolerance-a-critique/;
Block, Walter. 2010B. “Is Milton Friedman a libertarian? No.” Laissez-Faire, No. 32, pp. 9-22, March; http://fce.ufm.edu/Publicaciones/LaissezFaire/
Block, Walter E. 2011. “How Not To Defend the Market: A critique of Easton, Miron, Bovard, Friedman and Boudreaux.” Journal of Libertarian Studies; Vol. 22, pp. 581–592
http://mises.org/journals/jls/22_1/22_1_28.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2013. “Was Milton Friedman a socialist” Management Education Science Technology Journal (MEST Journal); Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 11- 26; http://mest.meste.org/MEST_1_2013/_02.pdf;
http://mest.meste.org/MEST_1_2013/Sadrzaj_eng.html
Block, Walter E. and William Barnett II. 2012-2013. “Milton Friedman and the financial crisis,” American Review of Political Economy, Vol. 10, No. 1/2, June, 2012 – June 2013; pp. 2-17; http://www.ARPEJournal.com; http://arpejournal.com./ARPEvolume10number1-2/Block.pdf; arpejournal.com
Friedman, Milton and Walter E. Block. 2006. “Fanatical, Not Reasonable: A Short Correspondence Between Walter E. Block and Milton Friedman (on Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom).” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3, Summer, pp. 61-80; http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/20_3/20_3_4.pdf; https://mises.org/system/tdf/20_3_4.pdf?file=1&type=document
Friedman, Milton. 2000. “Interview,” Commanding Heights. October 1; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/int_miltonfriedman.html
States Milton Friedman: “In the middle of a debate on the subject of distribution of income, in which you had people who you would hardly call socialist or egalitarian — people like Lionel Robbins, like George Stigler, like Frank Knight, like myself — Mises got up and said, ‘You’re all a bunch of socialists,’ and walked right out of the room.”
Long, Roderick T. 2006. “Realism and abstraction in economics: Aristotle and Mises versus Friedman.” The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics Vol. 9, No. 3, Fall, pp. 3–23; http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae9_3_1.pdf
Kinsella, Stephan. 2009. “Milton Friedman on Intolerance, Liberty, Mises, Etc.” November 9;
http://archive.mises.org/11004/milton-friedman-on-intolerance-liberty-mises-etc/
Lind, Michael. 2012 . « Thank you, Milton Friedman: How conservatives’ economic hero helped make the case for big government.” August 7 ;
http://www.salon.com/2012/08/07/thank_you_milton_friedman/
Machan, Tibor R. 2010. Milton Friedman and the Human Good, June 7; http://mises.org/daily/4451/Milton-Friedman-and-the-Human-Good
Marcus, B. K. 2007. “The Tepid Movement Before Mises” April 12; http://www.mises.org/story/2530
McChesney, Fred. 1991. “Antitrust and Regulation: Chicago’s Contradictory Views,” Cato Journal, Vol. 10, No. 3, Winter, pp. 775-778
North, Gary. 2012. “Detours on the Road to Freedom: Where Milton Friedman Went Wrong.”
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/north/north1178.html
Rand, Ayn. Undated. Her view on Friedman, and Stigler, 1946: “‘collectivist propaganda’ and ‘the most pernicious thing ever issued by an avowedly conservative organization’” cited in Skousen, Mark. 2001. The Making of Modern Economics. New York: M. E. Sharpe, p. 387; http://books.google.ca/books?id=QV2OJqbt45oC&pg=PA387&lpg=PA387&dq=%22the+most+pernicious+thing+ever+issued+by+an+avowedly+conservative+organization%22&source=web&ots=D-V4j_dhJA&sig=DZYoo1KjulTGviiR7kFGINFrbnY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
Friedman, Milton and George Stigler. 1946. “Roofs or Ceilings?,” September, Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, http://www.fee.org/library/books/Roofs_or_Ceilings.asp; reprinted as Friedman, Milton, and George Stigler. 1981. “Roofs or Ceilings?” in Rent Control: Myths and Realities, Walter E. Block and Edgar Olsen, eds., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute.
Rothbard, Murray N. 2002. “Milton Friedman Unraveled.” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 4, Fall, pp. 37-54; http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/16_4/16_4_3.pdf
Sennholz Hans F. 2006. “Milton Friedman, 1912-2006,” December 16; http://mises.org/story/2414
Vance, Laurence M. 1996. “Friedman’s Mistake.” The Free Market. Vol. 14, No. 11. November. http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=158&sortorder=articledate
Vance, Laurence. 2005. “The Curse of the Withholding Tax” April 21;
http://www.mises.org/story/1797
Wapshott, Nicholas. 2012. “A Lovefest Between Milton Friedman and J.M. Keynes.” July 30; http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/30/nicholas-wapshott-a-lovefest-between-milton-friedman-and-j-m-keynes.html; “Libertarians worship Milton Friedman, and liberals lionize John Maynard Keynes. But a long-lost essay shows that the champion of small government admired the prince of the New Deal.”
Wenzel, Robert. 2012. “How Milton Friedman Helped Make the Case for Big Government.” August 9; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/08/how-milton-friedman-helped-make-case.html
Wilcke, Richard R. 1999. “An appropriate ethical model for business,
and a critique of Milton Friedman,” http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Ethics.PDF
