Why Government Is the Problem

Essays in Public Policy, Volume 39

By: Milton Friedman

Narrated by: George Adams

The major social problems of the United States - deteriorating education, lawlessness and crime, homelessness, the collapse of family values, the crisis in medical care - have been produced by well-intended actions of government. That is easy to document. The difficult task is understanding why government is the problem. The power of special interests arising from the concentrated benefits of most government actions and their dispersed costs is only part of the answer. A more fundamental part is the difference between the self-interest of individuals when they are engaged in the private sector and the self-interest of the same individuals when they are engaged in the government sector. The result is a government system that is no longer controlled by "we, the people". Instead of Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people, and for the people", we now have a government "of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats", including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.

©1993 Milton Friedman (P)2021 Stefan Curry

An essay that remains mostly current

Unimpressive spoken performance, however, with need of some editing in the middle (fumbled with the equipment, then kept going?)

Milton knew then

Very thought-provoking. Milton told Us what was happening as it happened. Quick easy read, I recommend.

Good essay, bad production!

An interesting essay, yet terrible production! Did the narrator just kill a mosquito or a fly? There was an interruption followed by awkward noise in The section titled “explaining why Government is the problem” the 0:23 -> from the very beginning (12:45)

The man is right, the narrator is awful.

I could have gone out and hired anyone to read this 30 minute pamphlet for $5 and they would have done it better. Better still, I probably could have made something comparable by plugging the whole text into an online translator and recording the audio. The narrator spoke in a flat tone with no emphasis on key words and phrases.

Zzzzzz

The author presents well and in a way that is understandable to the majority. The reader sounds like he is about to fall asleep.

Boring reader

Excellent content but the reader takes a break once when something seems to fall in the background and does not edit it out. He’s also monotone and boring to an extreme.

more great stuff from Friedman

Difficult to dispute. My only criticism is that the narrator doesn't seem interested in the topic.

The Intelligence of the idea

Another brilliant mind we can learn from where are they now
Wish intelligent people of America would be leading this country. Unfortunately, it might be too late.

Lack of Evidence and Context

While I do agree with some things, there is a lot I disagree with. My biggest issue to this, is the lack of evidence and context. This lacked depth into very complicated issues. I believe this could be much better and convincing if it offered a deeper look into the topics and offered more facts and examples. The author brings up many things and treats them as if it is fact or a given. Also, it doesn't offer numbers or polls to suggest the public actually believes what the author suggests. I would love to see a deeper dive into these many topics

How bad the narration was

Performance was terrible, like listening to a 9 year old reading his book report. Will turn off people from a very important subject.