“Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society,” he writes in the opening passage of “Capitalism and Freedom.” Yet, according to Friedman, it is nothing more but a rhetorical figure. Widely known and recited, this slogan is, even today, greeted with admiration and approval everywhere around the world. Kennedy chose to end his inaugural presidential address on January 20, 1961. “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” This is how John F.
So, get ready to learn why government-controlled national economies necessarily give rise to captive societies and how capitalist governments should manage the economy to ensure political freedom for the majority of people. Its major theme, in the words of the author, is “the role of competitive capitalism… as a system of economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom.” Its minor theme is “the role that the government should play in a society dedicated to freedom and relying primarily on the market to organize economic activity.”
“A long-delayed product of a series of lectures” given by Milton Friedman at a 1956 conference at Wabash College, “Capitalism and Freedom” was first published in 1962, at the height of the Cold War, and it quickly made the intellectual leader of the Chicago School of Economics a household name in the West.
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