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Milton Friedman died today.

His book Capitalism and Freedom shocked me out of many of my preconceived policy notions, and should be read by anyone who wants to think more deeply and honestly about the way societies are or could be structured. Even if you disagree with some or all of Milton Friedman’s ideas (and most people are bound to disagree with many of them) they are powerful ideas and worth thinking about.

Milton Friedman not only thought in interesting ways, he rigorously avoided hypocrisy by consistently applying his ideas in a manner that often put him on opposing sides of the political spectrum. He might best be described as a libertarian. For example, Milton Friedman argued against expanding the power of government (the libertarian wing of the Republican party also seeks to limit government power), argued against drafting people against their will into military service (a policy supported by Vietnam war protestors), argued against price controls (price controls were supported by Richard Nixon), and argued against anti-drug laws (anti-drug laws are favored by both major political parties). Friedman argued all of these policies are limitations on individual freedom.

If you want to check out Milton Friedman’s ideas for yourself, many interviews with him are available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/results.php?search_query=%22milton+friedman%22) and on Google Video (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=milton+friedman).

Detailed obituaries can be found at the NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/business/17friedmancnd.html?ex=1321333200&en=c6bb7a3df4adbd5a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cb74eef8-7599-11db-aea1-0000779e2340.html), and many other major news sources (http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&ncl=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cb74eef8-7599-11db-aea1-0000779e2340.html).

Drug dealers, often glamorized by entertainment media, actually have a pretty terrible job, that pays most of them $3 an hour and within 4 years gives them a 25% chance of dying. That shocking mortality rate is actually a much worse chance of dying than if they were already sitting on death row!

This lecture by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt is very informative, rather funny, and quite horrifying:

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=s_levitt

Amartya Sen (a man with rather interesting ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen) has written a very interesting article.

A few excerpts:

The increasing tendency to overlook the many identities that any human being has and to try to classify individuals according to a single allegedly pre-eminent religious identity is an intellectual confusion that can animate dangerous divisiveness.

… The difficulty with the clash of civilizations thesis begins with the presumption of the unique relevance of a singular classification. Indeed, the question “Do civilizations clash?” is founded on the presumption that humanity can be pre-eminently classified into distinct and discrete civilizations, and that the relations between different human beings can somehow be seen, without serious loss of understanding, in terms of relations between different civilizations.

… Increasing reliance on religion-based classification of the people of the world also tends to make the Western response to global terrorism and conflict peculiarly ham-handed. Respect for “other people” is shown by praising their religious books, rather than by taking note of the many-sided involvements and achievements, in nonreligious as well as religious fields, of different people in a globally interactive world. In confronting what is called “Islamic terrorism” in the muddled vocabulary of contemporary global politics, the intellectual force of Western policy is aimed quite substantially at trying to define or redefine Islam.

… Even the frantic Western search for “the moderate Muslim” confounds moderation in political beliefs with moderateness of religious faith. A person can have strong religious faith “Islamic or any other” along with tolerant politics. Emperor Saladin, who fought valiantly for Islam in the Crusades in the 12^th century, could offer, without any contradiction, an honored place in his Egyptian royal court to Maimonides as that distinguished Jewish philosopher fled an intolerant Europe.

The entire article can be found here: http://www.slate.com/id/2138731?nav=nw