See the whole Free To Choose series at FreeToChoose.tv. Buy it here.
We don't generally do "news cycle" pieces here. But in the wake of the recent New York Times // Fox News (Glenn Beck) row, we thought it important to a) let our readers know who Frances Fox Piven is and what she believes, and b) share our classic footage of Milton Friedman's 1980 Free To Choose series.
In this segment, Frances Fox Piven clashes with Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell. They are arguing about equality: What is best for society? Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome? The best answer to this question is probably most succinctly captured by Friedman with his famous line delivered in the opening sequence. That said, in the context of the debate, Thomas Sowell is solid on the point about the absurdity of considering "retrospective results at the finish line." (Stay tuned. In tomorrow's clip, the debate continues and Sowell is blistering.)
You'll notice Piven refer to "Marlene Dietrich's legs," an example Friedman uses in a segment of Free To Choose outside this clip. I'm sure Piven considers the reference sexist. Perhaps it is, perhaps not. But I think a sexual reference is apt, not only because attractive legs are attributes many people would like to have, but because the example exposes the absurdity of redistributing natural assets, sexual or otherwise.
In other words, if I am taxed when I choose to apply my natural assets to create value for others in exchange for money, that taxation is in some sense a means of redistributing my natural assets, whether a la John Rawls or a la Karl Marx.
Note: Piven refers to Friedman as "Mr." at least twice -- which I think is intended to signal disrespect or worse.
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