Sorry to hear Milton Friedman passed away aged 94.
His books Free to Choose and Capitalism and Freedom were major influences on my world outlook.
He was a leader in the fight for liberty and his ideas helped to change the world for the better.
That's a pretty good epitaph.
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My condolensces to his family. He certainly lived a long life considering he was 94 years old. I generally supported many although not all of his views.
I met Friedman giving a guest lecture and talking at a dinner party at the University of Chicago 5 years ago when I was doing some graduate work there. Very nice man, really great sense of humour, and a fantastic orator. Really short in person - he and Rose are 3'10 and 3'8" respectively. But few men are greater giants than him.
A must watch is the old videotapes of his debates in the 80s. My signed copies of Capitalism and Freedom + Free To Choose are right next to the prominent place of my King James Bible (which are all ironically placed to the left of my copy of Marx's works - know thine enemy as I say) on the bookcase in my living room.
I was a dyed-in-the-wool hardcore namby-pamby socialist until I heard him speak. But his eloquent words against the New Deal, graphs depicting the success of monetarism, and Gary Becker/Robert E. Lucas turned me irrevocably into a Frederich von Hayek/Adam Smith liberal. He touched my life very profoundly and personally. And each and every one of us owes him our lives for his incredible work and inspirational words in defence of a free society.
There are very few thinkers who completely change the course of history and he was truly one of them. RIP and may God bless his soul.
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