This interview was filmed February 10, 1999. It is an interview with Milton Friedman, a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences. He discusses the fundamental functions of the US government and how it has overreached it bounds and could be cut back to its basic functions.
Transcript:
Peter Robinson: Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge. I’m Peter Robinson. Our show today. Libertarianism. Our guest, the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman.
Milton Friedman has told us why the government’s role in our lives should be limited. But how limited? Let’s ask him about the structure of the federal government itself.
I have a list here of the 14 cabinet departments. Now, 14 is a lot for television, so I want to just go right down the list quickly and have you give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. Keep them or abolish them.
Department of Agriculture
Milton Friedman: Abolish.
Peter Robinson: Gone. Department of Commerce?
Milton Friedman: Abolish.
Peter Robinson: Gone. Department of Defense?
Milton Friedman: Keep. Keep it.
Peter Robinson: Department of Education.
Milton Friedman: Abolish.
Peter Robinson: Gone. Energy?
Milton Friedman: Abolish. Except as energy ties in with the military.
Peter Robinson: Well, then we shove it under defense, the little bit that handles the nuclear, Plutonium and so forth, that ought to go under defense, but we abolish the rest of it.
Peter Robinson: Health and Human Services?
Milton Friedman: There is some, there are, there is room for some public health activities to prevent, contagion. Such a thing is, for example . . .
Peter Robinson: So you keep the National Institutes of Health, say not the Center for Disease Control. . .
Milton Friedman: No, No. Those are mostly a research agency. No, no. That’s a question of whether the government should be involved in financing research.
Peter Robinson: And the answer is no.
Milton Friedman: Well, that’s a complicated, that’s a very complicated issue. And it’s not an easy answer with respect to that.
Peter Robinson: We’ll eliminate half of the Department of Health Services.
Milton Friedman: Yay, something like that.
Peter Robinson: Okay. One half. There we go.
Housing and Urban Development?
Milton Friedman: Down.
Peter Robinson: Oh. Didn’t even pause over that one. Department of the interior?
Milton Friedman: Oh well. But housing and urban development have done an enormous amount of harm. My God, if you think of the way in which they’ve destroyed, parts of cities under the rubert of, of eliminating slums,
Peter Robinson: Jack Kemp . . .
Milton Friedman: You know, you remember, and Martin Anderson wrote a book on the federal bulldozer describing the effect of the urban development. There have been many more dwelling units torn down in the in the in the name of public housing than have been built.
Peter Robinson: Jack Kemp has proposed selling, to the current inhabitants of public housing their unit, their townhouse, their apartment for a dollar apiece and just shifting the ownership to the people.
Milton Friedman: Okay, okay. If you got rid of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would be worth doing that.
Peter Robinson: All right. Done. That’s gone. Department of the interior, your beloved National Park Service?
Milton Friedman: Well, given that. the problem there is, you first have to sell off all the land that the government owns. But just what you should do.
Peter Robinson: But it could be done pretty quickly.
Milton Friedman: It could be done. You should do that. There are no reason Government to own, the government now owns something like one third of all the land in the country, and that’s too much.
Peter Robinson: Should go down to zero.
Milton Friedman: Should go down well, not entirely zero. They ought to own the land on which government buildings are on.
Peter Robinson: Okay. Terrific. Department of justice?
Milton Friedman: Oh, yeah. Keep that one.
Peter Robinson: Keep that one. Labor?
Milton Friedman: No.
Peter Robinson: Gone. State?
Milton Friedman: Keep.
Peter Robinson: Keep it. Transportation?
Milton Friedman: Gone.
Peter Robinson: Gone. The Treasury?
Milton Friedman: You have to keep it. They collect taxes.
Peter Robinson: All right. Collect taxes through the Treasury. Veterans affairs?
Milton Friedman: You can regard the Veterans Affairs as a way of, of, of paying essentially salaries for services of those who have been in the armed force. But you ought to be able to get rid of it.
Peter Robinson: You should pay it off.
Milton Friedman: By, by, pay it off . . .
Peter Robinson: Pay it off. Pay off lump sums, perhaps and just get rid of it.
Milton Friedman: That’s right.
Peter Robinson: Okay? Milton Friedman, if you are a dictator for one day, the next day the.
Milton Friedman: No, no, I don’t want to be a dictator.
Peter Robinson: You wouldn’t.
Milton Friedman: I don’t believe in dictators.
Peter Robinson: Okay.
I believe we want to bring about change by the, by the agreement, for the citizens. I don’t, I don’t believe in arbitrary law.
Peter Robinson: You’re, let me put it this way then, you’re proposal . . .
Milton Friedman: If can persuade, if we can persuade the public that it’s desirable to do these things, we have no right to impose them, even if we had the power to do it.
Peter Robinson: From 14 departments down to four, four and a half . . .
Milton Friedman: . . . Basic fundamental functions. What are its fundamental functions? Preserve the peace, defend the country.
Peter Robinson: All right.
Milton Friedman: Provide a mechanism whereby individuals can adjudicate their dispute. That’s the Justice Department.
Peter Robinson: Justice Department
Milton Friedman: That’s the Justice Department. Protect individuals from being coerced by other individuals. The police did the function, right. And now this is both the central government and the state and local governments. The police functions primarily local and central.
Peter Robinson: Right.
Milton Friedman: And those are the fundamental functions of government, in my opinion.
Peter Robinson: Milton Friedman, thank you very much.
Video clip taken from: TAKE IT TO THE LIMITS: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism
