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  • This is Milton Friedman.

  • The Nobel Prize winning libertarian economist...

  • ...who adamantly opposed big government.

  • The government is too big.

  • It's becoming our master instead of our servant.

  • We've got to redact against it and cut it down to size.

  • So it may come as a surprise...

  • ...to learn that Milton Friedman...

  • ...proposed a government program...

  • ...to guarantee everyone a minimum income.

  • In my book "Capitalism and Freedom"...

  • I propose something called a negative income tax...

  • ...essentially a minimum income.

  • How could a free market capitalist like Milton Friedman...

  • ...propose essentially the same idea...

  • ...as a democratic socialist like MLK?

  • "A guaranteed minimum income for all people..."

  • "...and for all families of our country."

  • So many dollars a week or a month...

  • ...and they would get it in weekly or monthly payments.

  • 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,920 1. Freedom

  • I agree that as a moral principle those of us who are paying taxes to provide subsidies

  • for others have every moral right to say what it shall be used for.

  • If we want to say we'll give you money only if you use it to buy toothpaste and not for anything else.

  • , that's our right.

  • But I think we are very unwise to exercise it.

  • I think we would be wiser...

  • ...and more truly charitable...

  • ...and do both them and ourselves more good...

  • ...to tell them to use it to buy what they will.

  • The people who get on welfare...

  • ...lose their human independence.

  • They become subject to the dictates...

  • ...and whims of their welfare supervisor...

  • ...who tell them whether they can live here or there...

  • ...what they may do with their lives.

  • They're treated like children.

  • ...by requiring them to come before e government official...

  • and be told that you may spend X dollars on rent...

  • ...Y dollars on food, etc...

  • ...and then be given a handout.

  • They would be far better off if we just gave them the money and let them spend it.

  • Because in doing so...

  • ...we not only give them more help immediately...

  • ...we will strengthen their responsibility.

  • Milton Friedman understand individuals know best how to spend money...

  • ...for their own sake...

  • ...than any government bureaucrat.

  • The fundamental idea is that people should be free to choose.

  • 2. Cut Government Bureaucracy

  • We have too many separate individual programs.

  • Welfare in the U.S. is a complex maze...

  • ...of 126 separate anti-poverty programs.

  • The result: monumental government spending.

  • Much of it wasted.

  • Little of it going to the people...

  • ...whom we would like to see helped.

  • Now what it seems to me you aught to do...

  • is to give people money...

  • ...instead of a whole lot of separate little baffles...

  • ...and get rid of the bureaucracy that is involved in all these programs.

  • 3. Enable Work

  • You could have a program that would be far superior to the present structure in that

  • it would help people who are poor because they are poor.

  • It would help them in a way which would retain an incentive for them to work.

  • Many of the current welfare programs punish people for working.

  • If you take a job and increase your income...

  • ...you lose your benefits.

  • Maybe a job comes up that looks better than welfare.

  • ...but they're afraid to take it.

  • Because if they lose it after a few months...

  • ...it may be six month or nine months before they can get back onto welfare.

  • A guaranteed income removes that disincentive to work...

  • ...and allows everyone to earn more without being penalized.

  • They can earn an extra $100 or $200 and be better off.

  • With a guaranteed income it always pays to work.

  • It would mean we could each of us take advantage

  • of opportunities that opened up without fearing that by some chance if we lost our jobs...

  • ...it would be a long time before we could get back on assistance.

  • 4. Equality

  • It treats everybody the same way...

  • ...and there's none of this unfortunate discrimination among people.

  • Friedman wrote:

  • In other words, a program that is guaranteed to all citizens, is preferable

  • to the current programs that divide us up into subcategories.

  • It's a system which would have the effect of eliminating the separation of a society

  • into those who receive and those who pay.

  • A separation that tends to destroy the whole social fabric.

  • There was no freedom to work and spend as you choose in the Soviet Union.

  • With a guaranteed income the profit motive remains intact and everyone is still free

  • to earn as much more as they're willing to work for.

  • So what do you think of a guaranteed income?

  • If it's had so much support all through American history...

  • Why don't we have it yet?

  • Why don't governments learn?

  • Because governments never learn.

  • Only people learn.

This is Milton Friedman.

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