Cato.org
July 31, 2012
For us, who lived in the communist world, Milton Friedman was the greatest champion of freedom, of limited and unobtrusive government and of free markets. Because of him I became a true believer in the unrestricted market economy.Those are the words of Czech President Vaclav Klaus. Both Friedman's writings and his landmark 1980 documentary series "Free to Choose" were smuggled into totalitarian communist states, inspiring a generation of future scholars, activists, and politicians.
July 31st, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Friedman's birth. To commemorate that occasion, the Cato Institute has put together a video interview with Bob Chitester, producer of "Free to Choose," recounting how it came to be, its impact, and what it was like working with Milton Friedman.
Aside from those who lived under communism, there is another group for whom Friedman was and is a colossal figure: advocates of educational freedom. At a time when state-run schooling had been the norm for nearly a century, and had long ceased to be questioned by America's elites, Friedman offered a modest observation: there was no good reason for the government of a free society to actually run schools and many good reasons for it not to do so.
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