    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book I)]
    [May 9, 2002]
    [Pages 759-761]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in a Tribute to Milton Friedman
    May 9, 2002

        Well, thank you all very much. It's an honor for me to be here to
    pay tribute to a hero of freedom, Milton Friedman. He has used a
    brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: The vision of a society where
    men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as
    free to override their decisions.
        That vision has changed America, and it is changing the world. All
    of us owe a tremendous debt to this man's towering intellect and his
    devotion to liberty. So it's my honor to welcome you all to the White
    House. Thank you for coming. I'm looking forward to having lunch.
    [Laughter]
        I appreciate Larry Lindsey, and I want to
    thank him for his leadership and his friendship. I, of course, want to
    welcome Rose Friedman as well. I'm so honored
    that the Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld, has joined us as well as the Deputy Secretary of Defense,
    Paul Wolfowitz. I want to thank the
    Chairman for being here. Chairman Greenspan
    is a steady influence

    [[Page 760]]

    on our country, and I appreciate your leadership. I want to welcome Dr.
    Gary Becker, professor at the University of
    Chicago, who mentored Milton Friedman--[laughter]--a Nobel Prize winner.
    And I want to thank Guity for coming as well.
    Welcome. And I appreciate Ed Meese being here as
    well. It's great to see you, General.
        Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to
    substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the
    results are usually disastrous. In contrast to the free market's
    invisible hand, which improves the lives of people, the government's
    invisible foot tramples on people's hopes and destroys their dreams.
        He has never claimed that free markets are perfect. Yet he has
    demonstrated that even an imperfect market produces better results than
    arrogant experts and grasping bureaucrats. But Milton Friedman does not
    object to government controls solely because they are ineffective. His
    deeper objectives flow from a moral framework. He has taught us that a
    free market system's main justification is its moral strength. Human
    freedom serves the cause of human dignity. Freedom rewards creativity
    and work, and you cannot reduce freedom in our economy without reducing
    freedom in our lives.
        As Milton Friedman has written, ``I know of no society that has been
    marked by a large measure of political freedom and that has not also
    used something comparable to a free market to organize the bulk of
    economic activity.'' This viewpoint was once controversial, as was
    Milton Friedman, himself.
        When he began his work, the conventional wisdom held that
    capitalism's days were numbered. Free market systems were thought to be
    unsuited to modern problems. Today, we recognize that free markets are
    the great engines of economic development. They are the source of wealth
    and the hope of a world weary of poverty and weary of oppression.
        We have seen Milton Friedman's ideas at work in Chile, where a group
    of economists called the ``Chicago Boys'' brought inflation under
    control and laid the groundwork for economic success. We have seen them
    at work in Russia, where the Government recently adopted a 13 percent
    flat tax with impressive results. We have seen them at work in Sweden,
    which has adopted personal retirement accounts. We have seen them even
    at work in China, where the Government conceded long ago that Marxism
    was, in their words, ``no longer suited'' to China's problems. These are
    extraordinary developments. They demonstrate that the rest of the world
    is finally catching up with Milton Friedman. [Laughter]
        Yet Milton Friedman has done more than defend freedom as an abstract
    ideal. He has creatively applied the power of freedom to the problems of
    our own country, and in the process he has become an influential social
    reformer.
        Milton has shown us how freedom can enhance our national security.
    He is the intellectual godfather of our all-volunteer army. He argued
    that America could rely on the dedication of soldiers who serve in armed
    forces of their own free will, and he was right. We have recently seen
    the quality and idealism and skill of the all-volunteer army. Those who
    serve our country by choice are serving it with honor.
        Milton Friedman has also shown us how freedom can foster educational
    reform. For many years, he has been a tireless advocate of school choice
    as a way of empowering parents and improving the performance of our
    schools. Educational reform advances when parents have the information
    and the authority to push for reform. And there is no greater authority
    than a good alternative. Poor children in America need better options
    when they're trapped in schools that will not teach and will not change.
        In all of these issues and debates, Milton Friedman has argued with
    consistency and courage and trademark bluntness. His ideas

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    have influence around the world. And by his strength of conviction, he
    has served his country with distinction. And it has been recognized as
    such: After all, he received the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics, and in
    1988 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
        In 1938, Milton Friedman married Rose
    Director, an outstanding economist in her own right, and the only person
    known to have ever won an argument with Milton. [Laughter] Half a
    century later, Milton and Rose Friedman published a joint memoir called
    ``Two Lucky People.'' There's no doubt that Milton and Rose Friedman
    have been lucky, but not as lucky as America. We're lucky that their
    parents chose to emigrate from Europe. We're lucky they gave them the
    love and encouragement they needed to be bold and to succeed. We're
    lucky that Milton Friedman flunked some of his qualifying exams to
    become an actuary--[laughter]--and became an economist, instead.
    [Laughter] We're thankful for those tough exams--[laughter]--but not
    nearly as thankful as we are for the lives and talents and intellect of
    Milton and Rose Friedman.
        May God bless them both, and welcome.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:37 a.m. in Room 450 of the Dwight D.
    Eisenhower Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to
    Gary S. Becker, professor of economics and sociology at the University
    of Chicago, and his wife, Guity; and former Attorney General Edwin
    Meese.