N.P.G. Palma refers us to M. Friedman, Why Govt. is the Problem.

If Friedman really believes that, one has to ask why:

1. He was instrumental in pioneering withholding of taxes from payrolls, but
not from property income? This would seem to open the door to de facto
non-uniformity in taxation.
2. He blessed the work of Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet?
3. He proposed changing the U.S. Constitution to limit public input into
important economic decisions?
4. He rationalizes taxing incomes from all sources on the grounds that labor
incomes are mostly rents (tall basketball players and all that) and the
supply of capital is fixed (Harberger's "new view")?
5. Since his all volunteer army idea has been implemented, the U.S. has
started an unjustified war in Iraq, and lost it?
6. Having rejected Keynes' rationale for public debts he seems to have
endorsed Barro's rationale for the same - and said little or nothing (to my
knowledge, at least) in protest against what has happened since.

One could go on, but I wonder if the cult of M.F. hasn't been carried well
beyond his deserts?

Mason Gaffney