Milton Friedman's Free-Market Ideas Remain Correct Despite Attacks from Both Left and Right
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Everyone Hates Milton Friedman Again | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." August 22, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that even though both liberals and now conservative populists like JD Vance are criticizing free-market economist Milton Friedman, his ideas about limited government and free markets are still correct. As proof, the author points to bad economic outcomes under both Biden (who rejected Friedman) and Trump-Vance (who also reject Friedman), plus historical examples like Hong Kong's prosperity without needing Christian culture.
Conclusion
Milton Friedman's free-market economic philosophy remains valid and correct, despite being newly attacked by both progressives and national conservatives like JD Vance.
Premises
- Friedman's intellectual legacy is substantial: he earned a Nobel Prize, advised Reagan and Thatcher, and was called 'the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century' by The Economist.
- Historical evidence shows free markets lift people out of poverty more effectively than government-run programs.
- The Trump-Vance economic agenda, which explicitly rejects Friedman's approach in favor of tariffs and economic nationalism, has coincided with declining manufacturing jobs, stagnant real wages, and inflation around 3.5 percent.
- Vance's claim that Friedman's ideas required a 'Christian institutional' context is empirically wrong, since Hong Kong achieved the world's freest economy without a Christian cultural history, while Christian-nationalist Hungary has poor economic growth.
- Friedman anticipated and addressed conservative concerns about immigration and the welfare state, showing his framework already accounts for populist critiques.
- Biden's 2020 rejection of Friedman-style economics was followed by record inflation and high gas prices, illustrating the costs of abandoning his principles.
Assumptions
- Correlation between abandoning Friedman's policies and negative economic outcomes (under Biden and Trump-Vance) implies causation.
- Economic freedom/free markets are the primary or most important measure of a policy's success, rather than other social or cultural goals nationalists prioritize.
- Hong Kong and Hungary are sufficiently comparable and representative test cases for evaluating the necessity of Christian institutions to free-market success.
- Friedman's original theories don't require significant modernization to remain applicable to today's economic conditions.
- The current negative economic indicators are primarily attributable to specific Trump-Vance policies rather than other factors (e.g., global conditions, lagging effects of prior policies).