Sunday Economics Lecture: Milton Friedman, Who Protects The Workers?

The idea that it takes unions and governments to protect the workers in any society from the rapacious heels of the wealthy is perhaps one of the most pernicious, and simultaneously ridiculous notions ever perpetrated upon the world. It involves the recreation of history to fit a political narrative spun solely by people who wish to seize political power, mostly for themselves, and realize that they need an uneducated populace in order to do so.

While I will concede that unions will produce benefits for the people who belong to those unions, those costs are born not by management, but by the entirety of the remainder of the population at large. One overlooked fact in America, and any of the most economically free nations, is that the lot of the ordinary working citizen began improving greatly long before the creation of any union. Another overlooked fact is that the rapid improvement in the living standards of the ordinary citizen stagnated largely beginning with the appearance of trade unions. These facts are not coincidental, they are the result of a more causal relationship.

Watch for the fun Dr. Friedman has when challenged by the Socialists who attended his lectures and attempted to duel with the greatest economic mind America has ever produced. Friedman's stature is such that even this week, a Socialist moron named Ben Bernanke took great pains to invoke his name to justify his own malfeasance, which he is unfortunately in a position to inflict upon our great nation.

Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.

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Comment by joana briggs on October 8, 2012 at 12:41am: I so appreciate this man and his style. I cannot believe I understand . Economics as some one said is akin of black magic. I was so surprised in college to find it was not concrete application of undisputable facts. Opinion and power rule economics. View and counter view fuel the decisions that control our wealth producing systems. Home rule by We the people lowers the risk of runaway control.

Comment by Judy Lyford on October 7, 2012 at 11:32pm: Mr. Friedman has done it again! He always simplifies a subject in order to make it easier to understand.

I grew up in a right-to-work state. My understanding of unions came from an incident when I was a kid. My father's friend went to work for a company where the union was on strike. This man was able to take care of himself, but not where baseball bats and guns were being used. Even though he was badly in need of work, he had to leave.

Then, as a young woman, I worked for the USPO. Every so often the leaders of the union had a meeting. They brought us papers to sign and told us who to vote for. I never did know what I was signing.

Beyond that, I watched movies. It seemed to me the unions resembled the Al Capone movies. Both had thugs who threatened life and limb if ransomes (union dues or 'so called' insurance) weren't paid. Those who refused to pay got hurt or murdered.

All this also reminds me of our president paying the Muslims off. No matter how much they lie, cheat and steal, he wants them to like him. Our troops get murdered, so he pays them off again-----and again.

Comment by Judy Lyford on October 7, 2012 at 11:19pm

Comment by David J Edwards on October 7, 2012 at 6:05pm: Competition for Labor increases Wages. People's Lives Improve. They have more Freedom. Mass unemployment destroys Lives. Obama destroys businesses and Jobs, so Life Quality goes down with the loss of Demand for Labor in a Labor market that is glutted .

Supply and Demand... Friedman learned it from Adam Smith - "Wealth of Nations". There is no way around it.

Socialism is nothing but illusion and delusion designed to enslave people.

Comment by Phil McConathy on October 7, 2012 at 2:45pm: People who rely on the union or government to protect them will never be successful because these two will hold you down. As a former union employee who finally was able to demonstrate my worth to the company was promoted to a non-union position and my career was off and running. I never looked back and was very happy to not have the union dues or the union holding me back.