Government Quotes by Milton Friedman

There's a smokestack on the back of every government program.

— Milton Friedman

How do you hold down government spending?

— Milton Friedman

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

— Milton Friedman

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

— Milton Friedman

I am a limited-government libertarian.

— Milton Friedman

If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough.

— Milton Friedman

I would say that in this world, the greatest source of inequality has been special privileges granted by government.

— Milton Friedman

Higher taxes never reduce the deficit. Governments spend whatever they take in and then whatever they can get away with.

— Milton Friedman

I think almost every economist would agree that government gets itself in trouble when it tries to interfere with voluntary behavior.

— Milton Friedman

Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations.

— Milton Friedman

[T]he burden of government is not measured by how much it taxes, but by how much it spends.

— Milton Friedman

If the only motive was to help people who could not afford education, advocates of government involvement would have simply proposed tuition…

— Milton Friedman

I think that the Internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government.

— Milton Friedman

Government is a way by which every individual believes he can live at the expense of everybody else.

— Milton Friedman

Every businessman is in favor of freedom for everybody else, but when it comes to himself that's a different question. He's always…

— Milton Friedman

The most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the…

— Milton Friedman

The countries that have risen and separated out as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union are, on the whole,…

— Milton Friedman

I have long been a critic of Social Security, basically because I believe that it is not the business of government to…

— Milton Friedman

When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn't that exactly what's been…

— Milton Friedman

Socialism, in the traditional sense, meant government ownership and operation of the means of production. Outside of North Korea and a couple…

— Milton Friedman

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should…

— Milton Friedman

The great virtue of a free market is that it enables people who hate each other, or who are from vastly different…

— Milton Friedman

If we have system in which government is in a position to give large favor - it's human nature to try to…

— Milton Friedman

Now here's somebody who wants to smoke a marijuana cigarette. If he's caught, he goes to jail. Now is that moral? Is…

— Milton Friedman

There's only one thing that all of the central banks control and that is the base, their own liability, and they can…

— Milton Friedman

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He…

— Milton Friedman

The Great Depression was not a sign of the failure of monetary policy or a result of the failure of the market…

— Milton Friedman

You could not possibly maintain the current level of government taxation without the taxes being hidden, and they are hidden in two…

— Milton Friedman

If the government is to try and ban private consumption of alcohol and tobacco, it must surely ban such activities as hang-gliding,…

— Milton Friedman

"Free markets" is a very general term. There are all sorts of problems that will emerge. Free markets work best when the…

— Milton Friedman

The present oil crisis has not been produced by the oil companies. It is a result of government mismanagement exacerbated by the…

— Milton Friedman

The government doesn't have any money. The only power it has is to take from some and give to others.

— Milton Friedman

See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to…

— Milton Friedman

There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves

— Milton Friedman

I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from…

— Milton Friedman

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

— Milton Friedman

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

— Milton Friedman

The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus.

— Milton Friedman

How can thinking people believe that a government that cannot deliver the mail can deliver gas better than Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Gulf,…

— Milton Friedman

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

— Milton Friedman