Friedman Facts.com

People like to label and categorize. I get that. I do it, too. But the thing is that economic theories aren’t left wing or right wing–they’re purely academic until they’re put into policy. These ideas–ideological as they may later become–cannot be so easily categorized, nor can the people who propose them.

Milton Friedman was an ideas-man. He studied money, the free market, competition and a litany of other things that have become quite controversial. But I think that it’s lazy to label Friedman as “right wing.”

Take, for instance, two of Friedman’s biggest issues: the military draft and school choice.

Friedman headed the committee that recommended the elimination of the draft. Here’s what he said about it: “In the realm of policy, I regard eliminating the draft as my most important accomplishment.” (Source: Reason Magazine.)

You see, Friedman believed in freedom for all people, and saw compulsory military service as an affront to liberty.

Is this right or left wing?

Now onto school choice. Friedman and his wife Rose–who is also an economist–saw the problems of the government-run school system and how unaccountability and lack of innovation hurt kids. The damage that bad schools inflict goes a long way: It prevents people from getting jobs and can lead them to breaking the law to make ends meet. Not having a good education is very, very bad, which is why Milton and Rose founded the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The group’s mission statement is to promote “school choice to improve, through competition, the quality of K-12 education for all.”

Now, let’s ask the question: Is school choice a right-wing idea? Well, it is a part of the Republican platform–inasmuch as the term is in the platform–but many Democrats and liberals have taken it up too. 

Friedman may be respected among many right-wingers, but he’s also respected among libertarians, which is how, in a pinch, he identified himself. I identify myself as a libertarian, too.

Are libertarians right-wing? Most would say that libertarianism doesn’t fit either into the current idea of the left v. right politician spectrum. I agree. Libertarians (and our freedom-loving friends who go by many names) stand for freedom–plain and simple.

That was what Friedman stood for as well.