![handle is hein.journals/hjlpp10 and id is 13 raw text is: SYMPOSIUM
FREE MARKETS AND FREE SPEECH
MILTON FRIEDMAN*
I am not accustomed to speaking to lawyers or putative law-
yers, but we do have at least one thing in common. Economics
and law are, I understand, almost the only two professions that
have the characteristic that the supply creates its own demand.
I was told that my function is to put the symposium about the
First Amendment in a broader context. I shall try to do that by
considering two major issues: first, how free speech, press, and
assembly fit into the broader context of a free society; and sec-
ond, the case for a free society. The label I like to use to refer
to the views I shall express is liberalism, by which I mean real
honest-to-God liberalism, not the fake version that goes by that
name these days. I mean Nineteenth Century liberalism. These
days, Nineteenth Century liberals have felt compelled to refer
to themselves as libertarians or conservatives, even when those
names are thoroughly inappropriate. Professor Schumpeter
put it best when he wrote, [a]s a supreme, if unintended, com-
pliment, the enemies of the system of private enterprise have
thought it wise to appropriate its label.'
Let me start by asking a question that I discussed a number
of years ago: Do free men make free markets, or do free mar-
kets make free men? That sounds like a play on words, like a
purely semantic question, but it is not at all. There is some con-
nection both ways. But there is little doubt in my mind that the
connection from free markets to free men is much stronger
than the connection from free men to free markets. The Fram-
ers of our Constitution, the Founders of our country-George
Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander
Hamilton-were free men and as free men they made a society
that developed as a free society. But if you had asked Lenin and
Trotsky, you would have found that they too regarded them-
selves as free men; but by no means did they make a free soci-
ety. Much more important, intellectuals generally regard
themselves as free men and invariably favor freedom for them-
* Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution.
1. J. SCHUMPETER, HISTORY OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS 394 (1954).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hjlpp10&div=7
&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most