When Congress Busted Milton Friedman (and Libertarianism Was Created By Big Business Lobbyists)

[salvorhardin]

“Libertarianism” was a project of the corporate lobby world, launched as a big business “ideology” in 1946 by The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. The FEE’s board included the future founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch; the most powerful figure in the Mormon church at that time, J Reuben Clark, a frothing racist and anti-Semite after whom BYU named its law school; and United Fruit director Herb Cornuelle.

The purpose of the FEE — and libertarianism, as it was originally created — was to supplement big business lobbying with a pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-economics rationale to back up its policy and legislative attacks on labor and government regulations.

This background is important in the Milton Friedman story because Friedman is a founder of libertarianism, and because the corrupt lobbying deal he was busted playing a part in was arranged through the Foundation for Economic Education.

False, whitewashed history is as much a part of the Milton Friedman mythology as it is the libertarian movement’s own airbrushed history about its origins; the 1950 Buchanan Committee hearings expose both as creations of big business lobby groups whose purpose is to deceive and defraud the public and legislators in order to advance the cause of corporate America.

Full essay: http://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/milton-friedman

[abelenkpe]

1. K&R nt

[Odin2005]

2. Good that it mentions the scam that is the "Nobel" Economics Prize.

[Fridays Child]

3. Excellent article.

k/r

[Fridays Child]

4. I'm kicking this again.

Hopefully, the article will be read by more DUers and shared with others, as well.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Very interesting. His views were also used very perniciously by Maggie Thatcher.