Sometime around 1989/1990 I participated in a Liberty Fund conference where we attempted to begin creating the Index of Economic Freedom. I believe Walter Block was the organizer. In attendance was Milton Friedman. Sitting next to him during one of the informal cocktail hours, the discussion was about the prospects of Russia, which was at that very moment becoming Russia again and not “the Soviet Union,” adopting private property and a market economy and subsequently prospering. After listening to the discussion Friedman said: “We don’t want the Russians to prosper.”
At the same meeting Friedman and Alvin Rabushka debated the issue of military conscription in Israel. Rabushka took the Friedmanite position in favor of a voluntary army, while Friedman took the anti-Friedman position in favor of conscription in Israel.
2:35 pm on February 25, 2022
