Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman!

I have referenced his videos and literature a couple of times in this blog. He's really such a brilliant man, in my opinion, and such a master of rhetoric and debate. Take the classic Milton Friedman's Pencil I talked about in a previous post. Or maybe how he referred to migration as "people voting with their feet" or the market dictating where there is peace and prosperity.

I love how he explains the false assumption that bureaucrats or politicians given authoritarian power will act benevolently or in public interest. This typical sentiment that we need some sort of iron hand and restrictions on liberties in order for there to be development and progress. This is also something I have touched on a bit on my post about the Libya Civil War.

The Free to Choose (1980) is surely a big influence that has shaped my love for libertarian ideology. Regardless of the man's differences with other libertarians, he really was able to give a strong case on free enterprise and liberty while he was still alive. I don't think we can just discredit a person because you disagree with him on one or two point. Milton Friedman helped spread libertarian ideology or, at least in the strictest sense, libertarian-leaning policies.

It's quite fitting that I'm writing about Hong Kong for this blog I'm working on for work. Milton Friedman loved Hong Kong. The first part of Free to Choose is actually about Hong Kong, if I remember correctly. And it's true that this country remains to be the most economically free in the world (despite of authoritarian mainland China's vague sovereignty over this territory).

But yeah, just wanted to say happy birthday and have some sort of tribute post in this blog.