S01E01 The Power of the Market
Dr. Friedman visits and narrates a number of success and failure stories in history, which he attributes to capitalism or the lack thereof.
Free to Choose
S01E08: Who Protects the Worker?
Unions sometimes protect some workers - their members - but usually at the expense of other workers. Government protects its employees and special groups of workers at the expense of other workers. Both unions and government restrict freedom. Friedman explains how the competition of employers for the talents of workers leads to the highest wages and best working conditions.
Overview
Free to Choose is a ten-part television series broadcast on public television by economists Milton and Rose D. Friedman that advocates free market principles. It was primarily a response to an earlier landmark book and television series: The Age of Uncertainty, by the noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Milton Friedman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1976.
Episodes
S01E02 The Tyranny of Control
Government planning and detailed control of economic activity lessens productive innovation, and consumer choice. Good, better, best, are replaced by "approved" or "authorized." Friedman shows how "established" industries or methods, seek government protection or subsidization...
S01E03 Anatomy of a Crisis
The Great Depression has been popularly viewed as a failure of capitalism. The stock market crash, the failure of the Bank of the United States, loss of personal savings, were visible symbols supporting this belief....
S01E04 From Cradle to Grave
The welfare state arises from the attempt to do good with other people's money. Such attempts always fail because: Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as his own. Welfare is supply driven. Those spending...
S01E05 Created Equal
The Declaration of Independence says, "all men are created equal." Friedman explains that this did not mean all persons should or will have equal talents or income. Equal opportunity to better one's self, and the...
S01E06 What's Wrong with our Schools
Parental choice and parental responsibility in the education of children is the U.S. tradition and is consistent with a free society. Centralized government control has eroded freedom and adversely affected the quality of education. The...
S01E07 Who Protects the Consumer?
Various government agencies have been created on the claim that they will protect the consumer. These agencies restrict freedom, stifle beneficial innovation, and become agents for the industries or groups they are intended to regulate....
S01E08 Who Protects the Worker?
Unions sometimes protect some workers - their members - but usually at the expense of other workers. Government protects its employees and special groups of workers at the expense of other workers. Both unions and...
S01E09 How to Cure Inflation
Inflation results when the amount of money printed or coined increases faster than the creation of new goods and services. Money is a "token" of the wealth of a nation. If more tokens are created...
S01E10 How to Stay Free
Democracies have only recently been considered desirable. Historically, it was feared that democracies always self destruct when citizens, forgetting that you cannot remove want and misery through legislation, insist on government actions that physically and...
