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About this quote

What does it mean?
Friedman posits that prioritizing equality over freedom leads to losing both, while prioritizing freedom allows for both to flourish.
In plain terms
Putting freedom first gets you more freedom and equality.
What can you take from it?
Prioritize freedom to achieve both freedom and equality.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • social debate
  • political theory

Putting it to work

  • evaluate policy priorities
  • assess trade-offs

Questions to consider

  • Can you have equality without sacrificing freedom?
  • Which should come first?

Another view

Some argue that without enforced equality, freedom can lead to inequality.

More from Milton Friedman

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  2. The stock of money, prices and output was decidedly more unstable after the establishment of the Reserve System than before. The most dramatic period of instab…

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  3. Every friend of freedom... must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casu…

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