Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth
Hi Everyone:
Two more recent people that I would put up for consideration are John Von Neauman and Milton Friedman.
+1 for von Neumann.
Friedman is certainly one of the most influential economists ever, but IDK if I'd go so far as most influential human. But if you are going to list Friedman, you'd also have to list Keynes, Galbraith, and possibly von Mises or Hayak or others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth
Milton Friedman was an economist who had a dramatic influence on my life and we actually operate these forums based on ideas that Friedman advocated. Of course, he had to do more than this to be considered one of the most influential humans in world history, and the reason I include him is that I think it;s fair to say that his great contribution was helping to bring freedom to millions of people.
Now I'm also aware that those of you with more liberal views than mine may not be be fans of Friedman, but if you look at much of what he advocated, such as the legalization of drugs, I think many of you would be surprised. His Wikipedia page is located here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_friedman
Best wishes,
Mason
I don't think one has to be a fan of somebody to acknowledge their influence. I'm no fan of Joe Stalin or Addie Hitler, but I agree they were very influential 20th century leaders. So I readily agree that Friedman was one of the most influential economists ever. However, I find the assertion that Friedman was great because he brought freedom to millions to be absurd, unless one lives in a universe where one considers Chileans under the dictator Pinochet to have been more free than under the democratically elected Allende. I'd suggest Galbraith has a much stronger claim to being the economist that brought the most freedom to people.
Q. How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?
There are at least two answers available:
A1: Two. One to assume the ladder and one to graph the rotation of the bulb.
A2: None. If the light bulb had really needed changing, the market would have already changed it.