john: milton friedman? how many of you woke up because of a college course? very few. many of you got it from ron paul? [ cheers and applause ] . john: quite a lot. and finally how many of you got it because when you were in high school, one of your teachers played one of my stossel in the classroom tv shows, and you had a discussion about it. [ cheers and applause ] . john: all right! we have these videos, and people do learn some of these ideas in high school. earlier i asked some of you about this individually. what got you interested in liberty? >> i had a professor who taught paul krugman and milton friedman and i liked friedman better. >> watching ron paul got me interested. >> i came across ron paul. >> ron paul. >> youtube videos on friedman. john: where did you find them? >> i typed it in the search box, and milton friedman came up and i've been hooked. >> i heard about libertarian from you, on fox news. >> my economics and government teacher in high school played your public choice video. these are not the kind of ideas showing up in textbooks that are writte

[laughter] but, you know, you have got to go back to milton friedman on this. and i miss milton friedman for two reasons. one, i miss him terribly for good economics. and the other reason i miss him terribly is whenever i followed him on the podium, i could actually raise the microphone. [laughter] joking. but he said it correctly he said all government spending is taxation. the tooth fairy does not work at the u.s. treasury any longer. father christmas is not an american tradition. whenever the government spends, it's taxation. whenever they spend money, they have to take it from someone else. government spending is taxation. and you can go through all of these processes all of the different ways in which they distort the marketplace, and they all have very, very powerful effects. the problem is it's gotten so arcane and complicated and convoluted that you can't even tell what's going on really. it's really very hard to figure out what the degree of intervention to change income is. i mean it's in damn[ city bus tickets. i mean it's in every darn thing there i

and there was one table where the economists said, milton friedman. -- sat milton friedman. and the other was sidney hook. and i got to choose which table to sit up. i remember one time, he explained the problem of evil over about three hours. six or seven or eight of us just listening to him. he is an exemplar of a person who is passionately engaged in politics but also reflective and well educated. if the news is here, sidney hook was up here. the idea was to lift us up from the day to day flow of events. >> for three hours but what was his basic point that you talked for three hours, but what was his basic -- you talked for three hours but what was his basic point about evil and god? >> people have wrestled with this problem, why does a the decision job -- efficient -- benevolent god allow children to die? when i was there he had an operation that nearly killed him. he wrote to the "new york times" saying he wished they had let him die. he accepted there was no afterlife and was willing to go. a man of stark intellectual bravery. >> did you know him -- how well did you kn

c-span: and you mention it here and the other one is milton friedman's book, "free to choose." >> guest: yes. c-span: why are they -- would they be on your side? would they be in that... >> guest: yes. oh, no, i mention both of them very favorably. hayek had a profound impact on me in my thinking. i read "the road to serfdom" very early, in the mid-50s, and i ... c-span: why is it so important? >> guest: because it is such a succinct and persuasive and powerful statement of what is wrong with collectivism, with socialism, with any form of authoritarian government; why such governments don't work economically and are also destructive of personal liberty and there's a marvelous chapter in "the road to serfdom" called why the worst get on top. and this was someone who had experienced and seen the totalitarians in europe. and then he wrote another book later, published in 1960, called "the constitution of liberty," which is a much lengthier exposition of many of his same points, and i refer to hayek many times in my book. and certainly milton friedman, whom i consider a good friend, would b

> the other thing i would add is that when i see these regulations i always look out for what milton friedman called the law of unintended consequences and we saw that big time with dodd-frank the last time we got massive financial regulations. that was supposed to stop the big banks and it's done just the opposite. the big banks are getting bigger and the smaller banks are getting eaten up by the whales. that kind of thing will happen if you pass these regulations and the small brokers are going to be the one to bear the cost of this. neil: well put good to see you, my friend. onto this stuff here. is it time to quit banking on chris christie? is it time to stick a fork in chris christie? the presidential rival pushing his fundraiser was not enough. a judge has handed him a $1.5 million bill payable now. ordering the governor to put a lease at march into a pension fund what he had put off paying to balance the state budget. over to another judge as to why bridgegate isn't seeking his prospects. so he sees what is going on. what do you think? >> you know, this is adding up. this thing is a we

milton friedman free to choose. how many of you woke up because of a college course? is very few.ou got it from ron paul? (cheers) quite a lot. how many of you got it because you were in high school one of the teachers played one of my stossel in the classroom tv shows and you had a discussion about it. we have these videos and people learn some of these ideas in high school. earlier i asked some of you about this individual by. what got you interested in it? >> i had a teacher who taught. >> ron paul got me into liberty. >> youtube videos milton free man taught me about it. >> i heard of libertarianism and typed it into the search box and ever since then i have been hooked. >> on fox news my economics teacher and government. teacher in high school played public choice economics video. >> these are ideas you haven't heard before? >> not these kind of ideas they are not showing up in textbooks. >> i am originally from russia moving to the united states i saw that there is such a thing as liberty. >> right. young people sure know more about liberty and life than i did when i was the

with regard to the needs of the american workforce which i am well aware that milton friedman you really cannot have very liberalized immigration policy in a welfare state because people we will come to get on welfare. maybe. there is precious little empirical evidence that substantial numbers of immigrants are coming here for the purpose of getting on welfare. immigration is an inherently entrepreneurial act uprooting oneself and often one's family taking substantial risks and hardship for the purpose of getting here so they can go to work which is why the work force participation rate of illegal immigrants in the united states is higher than that of the american population as a whole. furthermore with regard to our needs the welfare state exists to transfer wealth from the working and middle age. that is fine. when ida mae filler came in 1940, 1940, the 1st american to receive regular monthly social security check she prefaced her problem because she had paid a grand total of $22 in social security taxes and then turned on her country and live to be a hundred collecting in the process

i remember reading an article by milton friedman many years before when i was a basketball player about how you could have a tax system with 16% and i thought that's pretty interesting. and i read all of stanley surrey from harvard, joe peckman at brookings, and i remember in 1986, i went to walter mondale, who was the candidate for president of the democrats, and tried to convince him to do tax reform. i said it could take the issue from the republicans, they were out there talking about tax cuts here you could talk tax cuts and equity. talk tax cuts and equity. he had been a member of the finance committee and charlie wrangle was his adviser on this issue and i think the combination of those things made him unwilling to take what he thought was the big risk for a hopeless cause and so, it passed, however, as everything in politics, nothing nothing's secret. it leaked that maybe he would be doing tax reform. and so that's when reagan called for a stutter by the treasury treasury one and so happened that the people at the treasury department in the tax area were really great people and

i remember reading an article by milton friedman many years before when i was a basketball player about how you could have a tax system with 16%, and i thought that's pretty interesting. and i read all of stanley surrey from harvard, joe peckman at brookings, and i remember in 1984, i went to walter mondale who was the candidate for president, for the candidate for president, for the democrats, and tried to convince him to do tax reform. i said it could take the issue from the republicans, they were out there talking about tax cuts, here you could talk tax cuts and equity. he had been a member of the finance committee and charlie rangel was his adviser on this issue. and i think a combination of those things made him unwilling to take what he thought was the big risk for a hopeless cause, and so it passed. however, as everything in politics, nothing's secret. it leaked that maybe mondale would be doing tax reform. and so, that's when reagan called for in the middle of the campaign a study by the treasury department. and so it happened that the people at the treasury department in the ta

i remember reading an article by milton friedman many years before when i was a basketball player about how you could have a tax system with 16%, and i thought that's pretty interesting. and i read all of stanley surrey from harvard, joe peckman at brookings, and i remember in 1986, i went to walter mondale who was the candidate for president of the democrats, and tried to convince him to do tax reform. i said it could take the issue from the republicans, they were out there talking about tax cuts, here you could talk tax cuts and equity. talk tax cuts and equity. he had been a member of the finance committee and charlie wrangle was his adviser on this issue and i think the combination of those things made him unwilling to take what he thought was the big risk for a hopeless cause and so, it passed, however, as everything in politics, nothing nothing's secret. it leaked that maybe he would be doing tax reform. and so, that's when reagan called for a stutter by the treasury, treasury one and so happened that the people at the treasury department in the tax area were really great people a