On November 16, 2006, the world bid farewell to one of its most prominent economic scholar and Nobel laureate, Milton Friedman - the grandmaster of free-market economic theory.
To me, this name had been mentioned so frequently for the past one month. During my EC5102 Macroeconomics Theory module a fortnight ago, I was refreshed again with his "Permanent Income Hypothesis". Then last week, I attended the Nobel Exhibition in NUS and the Nobel Economic Memorial Prize talk by A/P Tilak. Milton Friedman was again mentioned!
So when I got the news, I was in the EC5102 macroeconomics tutorial and my first thought was...well, if I could prove the hypothesis wrong, I would never able to tell Mr Friedman personally. What a funny thought!
However, without doubt, he remains one of most distinguished economist in the history of mankind.
"There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on
yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government!"
To me, this name had been mentioned so frequently for the past one month. During my EC5102 Macroeconomics Theory module a fortnight ago, I was refreshed again with his "Permanent Income Hypothesis". Then last week, I attended the Nobel Exhibition in NUS and the Nobel Economic Memorial Prize talk by A/P Tilak. Milton Friedman was again mentioned!
So when I got the news, I was in the EC5102 macroeconomics tutorial and my first thought was...well, if I could prove the hypothesis wrong, I would never able to tell Mr Friedman personally. What a funny thought!
However, without doubt, he remains one of most distinguished economist in the history of mankind.
"There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on
yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government!"- extracted from Milton Friedman's Master Thesis-
(coutresy of Azad Bali)
(coutresy of Azad Bali)
No comments:
Post a Comment