I know very little about economics. I took a single course in high school, and that’s it. Arguments about economic systems and policies are interesting to me, but I have no real basis of knowledge to challenge any of them. During university, I took a course on Marxism. The concepts in that course were incredibly abstruse. I did walk away from it feeling that I knew at least a little bit about what Marxism is, but again, I was only able to really argue against it on the basis of principals, not specifics. I decided to read Milton Friedman mostly out of interest, and because I find myself agreeing with classical liberal (what people today call libertarian) ideas about freedom and the role of government.  Attempting to understand the relationship between government and economic matters through a classical liberal perspective was the next logical step.

Friedman’s writing is concise, and easy to understand. This was a big help, as he explained economic concepts in terms I could understand without too much trouble. At times I did have to look up certain topics in order to gain a better background on it, but that took place infrequently. This straight forward and well explained book is very convincing. It’s hard to argue against someone advocating personal freedoms and the importance of choice . He goes about explaining why choice and freedom are important in a variety of areas; education, monetary policy, occupations, the postal system, etc. As I stated, I don’t have a basis of knowledge to challenge Friedman on these topics. However, even if I did have the expertise required to do so, I don’t think I’d have much success. His ideas are well thought out, and are strongly presented. They make sense to me.

This book was written in 1962. It’s old, and many things have changed since. it’s interesting to note that many things Friedman advocates in the text actually came to pass. For example, allowing personal ownership of gold. That had been banned in the 30s, and in the 70s it was permitted again. He also comes out in favor of floating exchange rates, which happened in the United States soon after the book was released. On both issues, today people wouldn’t argue against them (at least I don’t think they would). Friedman seemed to be ahead of his time, and perhaps his other ideas (a negative income tax) should be given more consideration. Especially in these days where a recession has lead to people abandoning the free market ship entirely.