Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.
Milton FriedmanRead
The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures, as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The success of the U.S. economy relies on private enterprises and the profit-and-loss system, not government intervention.
Milton Friedman emphasizes that the economic prosperity of the United States is fundamentally due to the functioning of private enterprises operating within a profit-and-loss framework. He argues that government interventions, such as supporting failing businesses, can lead to stagnation rather than growth, highlighting the importance of both profits and failures in the business cycle for economic health.
Themes
EconomyPrivate EnterpriseGovernment InterventionProfit And LossFailureSuccess
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire a discussion on the role of government in the economy during a business seminar.
More from Milton Friedman
All quotes →There is no place for government to prohibit consumers from buying products the effect of which will be to harm themselves.
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There is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.
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The great danger to the consumer is the monopoly -whether private or governmental. His most effective protection is free competition at home and free trade throughout the world. The consumer is protected from being exploited by one seller by the existence of another seller from whom he can buy and who is eager to sell to him. Alternative sources of supply protect the consumer far more effectively than all the Ralph Naders of the world.
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The strongest argument for free enterprise is that it prevents anybody from having too much power. Whether that person is a government official, a trade union official, or a business executive. If forces them to put up or shut up. They either have to deliver the goods, produce something that people are willing to pay for, are willing to buy, or else they have to go into a different business.
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When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn't that exactly what's been happening with drugs?
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