Milton Friedman on Responsibility to the Poor

This is a video clip of a speech given by economist Milton Friedman at Stanford University in 1978. His analysis is just as relevent now as then.

He responded to a question by a student: “How free are the poor, how free are the unemployed, how free are the people who are disadvantaged? What is government’s role?”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rls8H6MktrA&feature=]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rls8H6MktrA&feature=

Some excellent quotes:

“Government doesn’t have any responsibility. People have responsibility.”

“There has never been a more effective machine for eliminating poverty than the free enterprise system and the free market.”

“If you look at the real problems of poverty and the denial of freedom to people in this country, almost every single one of them is the result of government action.”

“We have constructed a governmental welfare scheme, which has been a machine for producing poor people.”

Hat Tip to Neal Boortz.