Milton Friedman speaks on "Responsibility to the Poor"
I am impressed by Milton Freidman's straightforward answers and unabashed defense of free markets. Do you think that Ayn Rand would agree with his statement (which is very different from the questioner's perspective) about responsibility?
SOURCE URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rls8H6MktrA
In this case, Friedman is referring to our moral responsibility to remove socialist policies that harm. However, once moral obligation is agreed upon in this case, one could demand it in the next case and so on. It is a pragmatic tool, and Friedman believed in making these sacrifices for a "better" nation. They would have sharply disagreed on this.
However, she could be inconsistent on on some of these moral questions, when practicality was at the forefront. For example, she felt one could accept a public grant or scholarship s long as one did not advocate they exist in the first place.
I guess I see a Friedman/Rand dissonance as healthy, important, and good.
you get another minute or so on this youtube version.
Equality is a metaphysically impossible goal to achieve and not truly desired by those who demand it.
His philosophy is just much more pragmatic than Objectivism. Don't stray from capitalism. Do I have a moral responsibility to give to charity? He is not consistent on this. He feels we have a moral responsibility to the Poor. He would never suggest force because it doesn't work. Rand would say it doesn't work because it is morally inconsistent with rational self interest. so there's that dose of altruism he's adding to the mix. Kind of like natural rights implicitly rejects altruism but not explicitly. Objectivism explicitly rejects a philosophy of altruism, even as a personal decision.