Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past

by Kevin M. Kruse

In a socialist society (Friedman alleges), dissenting views are crushed, but in a capitalist society anyone with money can freely promote his views. Wealthy individuals can support whatever ideas suit them—including outlier ones—and influence society. But rather than see this as a problem requiring redress, Friedman sees this as a virtue. In a capitalist society, “it is only necessary to convince a few wealthy people to get funds to launch any idea, however strange.” In this manner, “a free market capitalist society fosters freedom.”31 It’s an old socialist joke that capitalist societies run on the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. What Friedman not only added but defended was that the man with the gold could pay clever people—like himself—to offer the best defense of those rules that they could muster, a resource not available to the poor and middle class.