\n\nThe libertarianism of Rand (and she hated the word \u00e2\u0080\u009clibertarian\u00e2\u0080\u009d) was based on an economics of resentment of the \u00e2\u0080\u009cmoochers\u00e2\u0080\u009d and \u00e2\u0080\u009cloafers,\u00e2\u0080\u009d the sort of thing that leads one to call a book The Virtue of Selfishness. Friedman\u00e2\u0080\u0099s libertarianism was based on an economics of love: for real human beings leading real human lives with real human needs and real human challenges. He loved freedom not only because it allowed IBM to pursue maximum profit but because it allowed for human flourishing at all levels. Economic growth is important to everybody, but it is most important to the poor. While Friedman\u00e2\u0080\u0099s contributions to academic economics are well appreciated and his opposition to government shenanigans is celebrated, what is seldom remarked upon is that the constant and eternal theme of his popular work was helping the poor and the marginalized. Friedman cared about the minimum wage not only because it distorted labor markets but because of the effect it has on low-skill workers: permanent unemployment. He called the black unemployment rate a \u00e2\u0080\u009cdisgrace and a scandal,\u00e2\u0080\u009d and the unemployment statute the \u00e2\u0080\u009cmost anti-black law\u00e2\u0080\u009d on the books with good reason. He talked about two \u00e2\u0080\u009cmachines\u00e2\u0080\u009d: \u00e2\u0080\u009cThere has never been a more effective machine for the elimination of poverty than the free-enterprise system and a free market.\u00e2\u0080\u009d \u00e2\u0080\u009cWe have constructed a governmental welfare scheme which has been a machine for producing poor people. . . . I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m not blaming the people. It\u00e2\u0080\u0099s our fault for constructing so perverse and so ill-shaped a monster.\u00e2\u0080\u009d
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via Milton Friedman: An Economics of Love - By Kevin D. Williamson - Exchequer - National Review Online.
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