Why Government Is the Problem

Essays in Public Policy, Volume 39

By: Milton Friedman

Narrated by: George Adams

The major social problems of the United States - deteriorating education, lawlessness and crime, homelessness, the collapse of family values, the crisis in medical care - have been produced by well-intended actions of government. That is easy to document. The difficult task is understanding why government is the problem. The power of special interests arising from the concentrated benefits of most government actions and their dispersed costs is only part of the answer. A more fundamental part is the difference between the self-interest of individuals when they are engaged in the private sector and the self-interest of the same individuals when they are engaged in the government sector. The result is a government system that is no longer controlled by "we, the people". Instead of Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people, and for the people", we now have a government "of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats", including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.

©1993 Milton Friedman (P)2021 Stefan Curry

An essay that remains mostly current

Unimpressive spoken performance, however, with need of some editing in the middle (fumbled with the equipment, then kept going?)

Milton knew then

Very thought-provoking. Milton told Us what was happening as it happened. Quick easy read, I recommend.

Good essay, bad production!

An interesting essay, yet terrible production! Did the narrator just kill a mosquito or a fly? There was an interruption followed by awkward noise in The section titled “explaining why Government is the problem” the 0:23 -> from the very beginning (12:45)

As always Dr Friedman is spot on

Wish it would have went on longer Dr Friedman is so knowledgeable as to make the complex easy to understand

The man is right, the narrator is awful.

I could have gone out and hired anyone to read this 30 minute pamphlet for $5 and they would have done it better. Better still, I probably could have made something comparable by plugging the whole text into an online translator and recording the audio. The narrator spoke in a flat tone with no emphasis on key words and phrases.