Milton Friedman Speaks With Bob Kuttner

Bob Kuttner speaks with Milton Friedman.Here's an extract:

MF: I think that the sectors you describe are different, not because of their nature, not because they are necessarily different, but because the government does play such a large role. There is no reason whatsoever why government should be producing schooling. You can make an argument for subsidizing schooling, you can make an argument for requiring compulsory schooling, though I think it is weak. Those you can do. But why should government be producing schooling, and not producing automobiles? What is it that makes government a better producer of schooling than private enterprise, and differentiates it from other sectors?

RK: I would divide the question into whether a subsidy is needed as one question, and what the optimal delivery mechanism is, as a separate question. And the difference between automobiles and schools, it seems to me, is less that government should necessarily be put in charge of running schools, than that society ought to be subsidizing the function.

MF: Well but government can subsidize the function without running the schools. Government can give food stamps to people, but it doesn’t run grocery stores.

A question to Milton Friedman: why trust central banking? Why not get rid of it.