RIP Milton Friedman

[zera]

So in the past week Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman died at the age of 94. If you don't know who this man is and you are part of this community you should familiarize yourself. He has probably done more to advance the agenda of drug de-criminilization than anyone else in the past 50 years in America. Friedman was on the forefront of opposing the drug war when it had broad popular support, way before the position became more mainstream. When Nixon declared a "war on drugs" Friedman immediately declared that it would become a failure. Even just recently Friedman was one of 500 academics to sign a petition calling for the legalization of marijuana.

Friedman has been a strong proponent of drug legalization for his entire career and many of the modern arguments for decriminalization were first seriously advocated by him. He lent a serious, hard-nosed image to the movement that allowed it much greater respect among conservatives, non-drug users, and older Americans. Anyway a great man has died

[El Calico Loco]

Word. He made some mistakes along the way, but he was a true believer in the liberty and dignity of the individual. Godspeed.


ECL

[Riconoen {UGC}]

RIP to a great man.

[Micklemouse]

And Adolf Hitler made the trains run on time whilst being a fervent vegetarian & environmentalist. Milton Friedman was instrumental in the ultra-conservative free-market policies of both Reagan & Thatcher (now what did they do for the War On Drugs?), & a supporter of Augustus Pinochet (military dictator & disappearer of people & freedoms in Chile). Groovy guy huh?

If you want a real hero of the war on drugs look to George Soros.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by Micklemouse

And Adolf Hitler made the trains run on time whilst being a fervent vegetarian & environmentalist. Milton Friedman was instrumental in the ultra-conservative free-market policies of both Reagan & Thatcher (now what did they do for the War On Drugs?), & a supporter of Augustus Pinochet (military dictator & disappearer of people & freedoms in Chile). Groovy guy huh?

If you want a real hero of the war on drugs look to George Soros.

Actually, it was Mussolini who promised to make the trains run on time, but the sentiment is the same. I had the same feeling after reading about this guy. None of his biographies even mention the war on drugs, either this was not something prevalent in his life, to the point where biographers would mention it, or he did a late-life reversal of policies to condemn what he earlier supported (just going by what Wikipedia had to say on him and the subject of Hong-Kong, admittedly this might not be ENTIRELY characteristic).

So, this man seems to not be without his flaws, although I will say that it would take a LOT of balls to advance any sort of anti-drug war cause during the Nixon or Reagan administrations, so whoever mentioned him championing the cause of individual liberties was probably onto something, methinks.

[Trebor]

Either way, this man fought against the War on Drugs and for the legalization of Cannabis. ANybody who does that is ok in my book. Let us remmebr this man for the good he did and insdpired others to do.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

If I wanted a euro socialist big brother bullshit government maybe i'll look to goerge soros. free markets are good in my book.

[Akewstick]

If I wanted a euro socialist big brother bullshit government maybe i'll look to goerge soros. free markets are good in my book.

I do wish you'd stop throwing the word "socialist" around and thinking it's synonymous with oppression and secret policeman raping your children. You need to read a definition of "socialism", just a definiton from a dictionary or something like that, you'll be very surprised.

The idea that you can thing George Soros, a multi-billionaire tycoon who uses his mountain of cash to fund things like solidarność, was a socialist makes me want to weep at your level of ignorance.

free markets are good in my book.

Not as good as they are in George Soros' book.

Every time you've mentioned the word socialist, you've completely bypassed it's actual meaning, replaced it with the same repetative fabrications we've been hearing for the last 60 years and to top it off, invariably cited some person or organisation who is about as socialist as George W Bush.

I'd advise getting your facts straight, unless you don't mind people thinking you're an idiot, and I don't mean lefties thinking you're an idiot, I mean everyone who knows anything more than you about what you're talking about, which is everyone.

I'm not flaming, I'm trying to get you to broaden your horisons, find out a little more about socialism, nobody is not saying you have to stop hating it to look into it. One suggestion I would make is: if you're not willing to find out what it is, stop talking about it. Please.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

I don't like the government owning pretty much everything and interfering with our lives, which is what socialism is. I'm sorry I'm not a journalism school dropout like many of you seem to be and can create thesis paper sized posts about pretty much anything at the drop of a hat. and If that makes me an idiot, well, I don't give a rats ass about what people on the internet think of me.

I didnt come here to be flamed akewstick which no matter what you may think flaming is, that was flaming, I suggest we just drop it here and forget about it becuase I see a flamewar in our futures.

[Akewstick]

I didnt come here to be flamed akewstick which no matter what you may think flaming is, that was flaming, I suggest we just drop it here and forget about it becuase I see a flamewar in our futures.

I think flaming is illegal, so all I see in our future is either a debate, or one of us trying to end discussions early by calling "flame" because they're making themselves look silly.

The length of your posts means nothing to me, one line of bullshit is no worse than 5000 words of bullshit. In fact, it's better.

I agree with you though, maybe we should drop it, if all I'm going to get from you is sidestepping the issues I've brought up about your indefensible, ill thought out position (or more accurately, the position of idiots around the world you've chosen to parrot at me), then nothing productive will come from our discussion.

I don't expect you to answer this, but just incase you're feeling up to it, and want to reply to me like a grownup might:

Could you explain to me why you don't want a democratically elected government interfering with your life, and as an alternative want money-making organisations (you have no say in who makes up these organisations by the way) to fight each other for who has the most control over your life, on battlefields you have no say in, you want that to be the system of deciding who gets to own "pretty much everything and interfere with our lives."

[El Calico Loco]

This conversation is a perfect example of the fact that no two people ever agree on anything. One can respect Friedman for his view on drug prohibition without necessarily endorsing his free-market economics, just as I can respect the Green Party for being right on the issue of land and pollution and wrong on just about everything else.

Friedman was especially important to everyone on this board because he was seen as part of the right. If the insane War on Fun Drugs is ever to end, we'll need supporters from across the political spectrum. The average citizen needs to see that it's not just hippy potheads that think it's foolish, but also stiff, suit-wearing types.


ECL