For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 9, 2002
President Honors Milton Friedman for Lifetime Achievements
Remarks by the President in Tribute to Milton Friedman
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Room 450
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much. It's an honor for
me to be here to pay tribute to a hero of freedom, Milton Freidman. He
has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: the vision of a
society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where
government is not as free to override their decisions.
That vision has changed America and it is changing the world. All
of us owe a tremendous debt to this man's towering intellect and his
devotion to liberty. So it's my honor to welcome you all to the White
House. Thank you for coming, I'm looking forward to having lunch.
I appreciate Larry Lindsey, and I want to thank him for his
leadership and his friendship. I, of course, want to welcome Rose
Friedman, as well. I'm so honored that the Secretary of Defense, Don
Rumsfeld, has joined us, as well as the Deputy Secretary of Defense,
Paul Wolfowitz.
I want to thank the Chairman for being here. Chairman Greenspan is
a steady influence on our country; and I appreciate your leadership.
I want to welcome Dr. Gary Becker, Professor at the University of
Chicago, who mentored Milton Friedman. (Laughter.) A Nobel Prize
winner. And I want to thank Guity for coming, as well. Welcome. And
I appreciate Ed Meese being here, as well. It's great to see you,
General.
Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to
substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the
results are usually disastrous. In contrast to the free market's
invisible hand, which improves the lives of people, the government's
invisible foot tramples on people's hopes and destroys their dreams.
He has never claimed that free markets are perfect. Yet he has
demonstrated that even an imperfect market produces better results than
arrogant experts and grasping bureaucrats. But Milton Friedman does
not object to government controls solely because they are ineffective.
His deeper objectives flow from a moral framework. He has taught us
that a free market system's main justification is its moral strength.
Human freedom serves the cause of human dignity. Freedom rewards
creativity and work, and you cannot reduce freedom in our economy
without reducing freedom in our lives.
As Milton Friedman has written, "I know of no society that has been
marked by a large measure of political freedom, and that has not also
used something comparable to a free market to organize the bulk of
economic activity." This viewpoint was once controversial, as was
Milton Friedman, himself.
When he began his work, the conventional wisdom held that
capitalism's days were numbered. Free market systems were thought to
be unsuited to modern problems. Today we recognize that free markets
are the great engines of economic development. They are the source of
wealth, and the hope of a world weary of poverty and weary of
oppression.
We have seen Milton Friedman's ideas at work in Chile, where a
group of economists called the "Chicago Boys" brought inflation under
control and laid the groundwork for economic success. We have seen
them at work in Russia, where the government recently adopted a 13
percent flat tax with impressive results. We have seen them at work in
Sweden, which has adopted personal retirement accounts. We have seen
them even at work in China, where the government conceded long ago that
Marxism was, in their words, "no longer suited" to China's problems.
These are extraordinary developments. They demonstrate that the
rest of the world is finally catching up with Milton Friedman.
(Laughter and applause.)
Yet Milton Friedman has done more than defend freedom as an
abstract ideal. He has creatively applied the power of freedom to the
problems of our own country, and in the process he has become an
influential social reformer.
Milton has shown us how freedom can enhance our national security.
He is the intellectual godfather of our all-volunteer army. He argued
that America could rely on the dedication of soldiers who serve in
armed forces of their own free will -- and he was right. We have
recently seen the quality and idealism and skill of the all-volunteer
army. Those who serve our country by choice are serving it with
honor.
Milton Friedman has also shown us how freedom can foster
educational reform. For many years, he has been a tireless advocate of
school choice as a way of empowering parents and improving the
performance of our schools. Educational reform advances when parents
have the information and the authority to push for reform. And there
is no greater authority than a good alternative. Poor children in
America need better options when they're trapped in schools that will
not teach and will not change. (Applause.)
In all of these issues and debates, Milton Friedman has argued with
consistency and courage, and trademark bluntness. His ideas have
influence around the world. And by his strength of conviction, he has
served his country with distinction. And it has been recognized as
such -- after all, he received the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics,
and in 1988 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1938, Milton Friedman married Rose Director, an outstanding
economist in her own right -- and the only person known to have ever
won an argument with Milton. (Laughter.) Half a century later, Milton
and Rose Friedman published a joint memoir called, "Two Lucky People."
There's no doubt that Milton and Rose Friedman have been lucky. But
not as lucky as America. We're lucky that their parents chose to
immigrate from Europe. We're lucky they gave them the love and
encouragement they needed to be bold and to succeed.
We're lucky that Milton Friedman flunked some of his qualifying
exams to become an actuary -- (laughter) -- and became an
economist, instead. (Laughter and applause). We're thankful for those
tough exams -- (laughter) -- but not nearly as thankful as we are
for the lives and talents and intellect of Milton and Rose Friedman.