martes, 24 de agosto de 2010

Capitalism and freedom

Terminé de leer una de las obras más famosas de Milton Friedman, "Capitalism and Freedom". Realmente lo recomiendo mucho y no sólo para economistas. Está escrito en un lenguaje simple y fácil de entender.
Quiero compartir con ustdes algunas de las citas que más llamaron mi atención (van en inglés, no estoy con ganas de traducir):


  • "The consistent liberal is not an anarchist"
  • "The stock of money, prices and output was decidedly more unstable after the establichment of the Reserve System than before"
  • "To paraphrase Clemenceau, money is much too serious a matter to be left to Central Bankers"
  • "There is much experience to suggest that the most effective way to convert a market economy into an authoritarian economic society is to start by imposing direct controls on foreign exchange. This one step leads inevitably to the rationing of imports, to control over domestic production that uses imported products or that produces sobstitutes for imports, and so on in a never-ending spiral" (especialmente aplicable a la Argentina de hoy)
  • "While tariffs are bad, quotas and other direct interferences are even worse" (lo sabe todo el que cursó Comercio Internacional con Marzia en UTDT)
  • "We would be benefited by disposing with our tariffs even if other countries did not" (en contra del mito popular de que las barreras al comercio sólo deben ser eliminadas si otros países también las eliminan)
  • "The preservation of the Jews through the Middle Ages was possible because of the existence of a market sector in which ehty could operate and maintain themselves despite official persecution."
  • "To take a more general example, the preserves of discrimination in any society are the areas that are most monopolistic in character, whereas discrimination against groups of particular color or religion is least in those areas where there is the greatest freedom of competition" (en línea con las teorías de Gary Becker sobre cómo el mercado reduce la discriminación)
  • "If it is appropiate for the state to say that individuals may not discriminate in emplyment because of color or race or religion, then it is equally appropiate for the state, provided a majority can be found to vote that way, to say that individuals must discriminate in emplyment on the basis of color, race or religion."
  • "History offers ample evidence that what determines the average level of prices and wages is the amout of money in the economy and not the greediness of businessmen or of workers" (sobre las causas de la inflación).
  • "It is worth noting that the usual arguments for licensure, and in particular the paternalistic arguments, are satisfied almost entirely by certification alone" (en contra de la existencia obligatoria de las licencias)
  • "The essence of the power of a trade union is its power to restrict the number who may engage in a particular occupation. This restriction may be exercised indirectly by being able to enforce a wage rate higher than would otherwise prevail. If such a wage rate can be enforced, it will reduce the number of people who can get jobs and thus indirectly the number of people pursuing the occupation" (en contra del salario mínimo)
  • "In fact, insofar as minimun wage laws have any effect at all, theit effect is clearly to increase poverty"
  • "Humilty is the distinguishing virtue of the believer in freedom; arrogance, of the paternalist"

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