Quote Originally Posted by glam View Post
yeah well Einstein did not do what he did out of materialistic greed, either...

Donahue's question was not even about government, but Friedman twisted it around so that he could use the fact that Einstein's work was not mandated by government as a defense of the free market and people's "greed", as if it was the free market and greed that was somehow responsible for Einstein's theories and his motivation to construct them.
No I think his point was that it wasn't caused by the government, rather than that it was caused by the free market.

i've seen many clips from that particular interview and it always kills me how dishonestly Friedman presents his arguments, how many things he says are so very subtly fallacious.
Friedman is arguing that people are always going to be greedy, or at least, we can always expect greed. How will giving monopolistic priviledges to some of these greedy people solve our problems?