Milton Friedman Advocates for an Objective Empirical Approach

“[Milton Friedman] argues for an empirical approach in which one is tolerant of views one disagrees with and tests them with data. He writes that ‘there is no doubt in my mind that Ludwig von Mises has done more to spread the fundamental ideas of free markets than any other individual. There is no doubt in my mind that nobody has done more than Ayn Rand to develop a popular following for many of these ideas. And yet there is also no doubt that both of them were extremely intolerant.’ He suggests instead that objective empirical work will help resolve differences and disagreements.”

(Compiled and Edited by Robert Leeson and Charles G. Palm, Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman, Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 2017; from Foreword by John B. Taylor, xi)

Bad Economists & Bad Economic Theories That Continue to Thrive

“JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, the man—his character, his writings, and his actions throughout life—was composed of three guiding and interacting elements. The first was his overweening egotism, which assured him that he could handle all intellectual problems quickly and accurately and led him to scorn any general principles that might curb his unbridled ego. The second was his strong sense that he was born into, and destined to be a leader of, Great Britain’s ruling elite.”

”Both of these traits led Keynes to deal with people as well as nations from a self-perceived position of power and dominance. The third element was his deep hatred and contempt for the values and virtues of the bourgeoisie, for conventional morality, for savings and thrift, and for the basic institutions of family life.”

(Excerpt from Keynes the Man by Murray N. Rothbard, Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 2010, 7, https://books.apple.com/us/book/keynes-the-man/id444965816)

Economics: Socialism (An Anti-Capitalistic Mentality)

. . . people do not ask for socialism because they know that socialism will improve their conditions, and they do not reject capitalism because they know that it is a system prejudicial to their interests. They are socialists because they believe that socialism will improve their conditions, and they hate capitalism because they believe that it harms them. They are socialists because they are blinded by envy and ignorance. They stubbornly refuse to study economics and spurn the economists’ devastating critique of the socialist plans because, in their eyes, economics, being an abstract theory, is simply nonsense. They pretend to trust only in experience. But they no less stubbornly refuse to take cognizance of the undeniable facts of experience, viz., that the common man’s standard of living is incomparably higher in capitalistic [America] than in the socialist paradise of the Soviets.

(Ludwig Von Mises, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, South Holland, Illinois: Libertarian Press, 1978, 46)