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  • Essay / Mill and Friedman: different only in details

    Political theorists base their ideas on past theories. Jon Stuart Mill learned from Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism. Although considered highly revolutionary at the time, Mill drew his ideas from utilitarian thinking. Milton Friedman, one of neoliberalism's most prominent thinkers, was no different. Friedman drew heavily on Mill and other classic liberal thinkers when he sought to develop the idea that would respond to the growth of New Deal policies. Friedman's language differs from Mill's because Friedman lived a century before Mill; However, Friedman's idea does not derive much from Mill's in its basic principle. Friedman and Mill's idea has some differences, although they are relatively minor. The differences stemmed largely from Friedman's embrace of classical liberalism into the modern political and economic landscape. Just as socialists incorporated their utopian ideal of a classless society into their ideas, Friedman incorporated his utopian ideal of natural rights – that everyone is entitled to natural rights – to make his idea of ​​limited government more appealing to those who are disappointed by Keynesianism and the New Deal. policies. Since a government does not have the power to regulate nature, Friedman asserts that laws should protect, not interfere with, the rights of the individual. Friedman's reasoning differs from Mill's, although both share the principle of limited government. In his book On Liberty, Mill relies on utilitarian logic to make his argument for limited government. Mill argues that an individual with his own vested interest can run a business better than a government that has no vested interest, because an individual is likely to pay more attention to a business than a mere piece of paper . ......Mill and Friedman, although a century apart, are remarkably similar in principle. Both advocate limited government and an economy based on competition. Both believe that competition must be fair and governed by the rule interpreted and applied by the government. They believe in the power of government to control the money supply as well as the power to control a certain monopoly if the resource is essential. Finally, despite their skepticism of paternalistic government, both express their opinion that madmen and children should be governed paternalistically by the government because they are not fully capable of making responsible decisions. Friedman, while adopting Mill's policies to fit the modern political and economic landscape, differs from Mill only in details and semantics; Friedman retains most of the principles fashioned by Mill a century ago.