Think Twice Finance

It Takes An Earthquake: The Absurd Attacks on Milton Friedman for His Support of Chile

Over 30 years ago Milton Friedman changed my way of looking at my career in one 5 minute meeting. He said “Anything as complicated as the seminar you just delivered is either wrong or irrelevant.” Without that remark I would undoubtedly not be writing this blog.

Friedman himself did little that was irrelevant. His detractors claimed he consorted with a dictator and formed a cabal of Friedmanites in Chile. When he first began working with his Chilean students, Chile was a typical banana republic. It has since survived a dictator and several leftist regimes. But it alone among Latin American countries possesses a stong economy and quality social services, largely due to the efforts of Friedman’s disciples. This was most recently evidenced by events following the earthquake in Chile. While in general developing countries collapse with a tremor as building standards are rarely honored there. But in Chile’s earthquake - 500 times more powerful than Haiti’s - less than 1000 people have perished compared to over 200,000 in Haiti. He was a small man that did great things.