Milton Friedman vs Ayn Rand: How to Change the World

https://youtu.be/Bg9BFE1-49Y Podcast audio: In this episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Milton Friedman’s impact as a public intellectual and how his advocacy of the free market differed from Ayn Rand’s radical philosophical case for capitalism. Among the topics covered: Why Milton Friedman is an essentially positive influence on free market thought; How Friedman’s moral conventionality reinforced the ideas he tried to oppose; The importance of stating the ideal when advocating for gradual reform; Why questions of morality are at the root of economic issues; How Friedman’s amoralism and pragmatism blinded him to the statists’ motivation; Ayn Rand’s critical evaluation of Friedman; Why the abolitionist movement is a model for moving the world toward freedom. Mentioned in this podcast is Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook’s course “Cultural Movements: Creating Change” and Ayn Rand’s essay “Tax Credits for Education.” The podcast was recorded on May 2, 2024. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

A Decent Critique of Friedman

One of the ARI’s better episodes. It’s a decent critique of Friedman.

A couple of problems: it does not explore Rand’s alternative to Friedmanism deeply. In particular, what would a society totally devoid of altruism really look like? I think the ARI knows this would turn off listeners if they really challenged themselves here as opposed to sticking to softballs as they always do.

The second problem is that Jefferson also supported a degree of utilitarian thinking even if it hadn’t been so named yet. His advocacy of public education demonstrates this. So, sorry, but no, he was not fanatical about always siding with natural rights over utilitarian considerations.