Friedman’s early position was a derivative echo of Hayek and Röpke, not yet distinctive

Evidence

Friedman’s po liti cal thought was, at this point, in close conformity with that expressed by the leading members of the society during the initial meeting at Mont Pèlerin. The basic assumptions refl ected in the essay— including the need to overcome the dogmas of nineteenthcentury liberalism, the hazards of monopoly, the benefi ts of corporate regulations, and the desirability of governmentsponsored relief for the poor— were parroted from Hayek’s and Röpke’s descriptions of their mutual goals. Friedman had aligned himself with an ideological program, but he had not yet elaborated the characteristics that would mark his po liti cal philosophy as a distinctive departure from that of his pre de ces sors in Chicago and forebears at Mont Pèlerin. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 432

Categorization

• XREF: Positions Friedman’s early career against the shared Mont Pèlerin program described earlier in the book, setting up the divergence to come.
• SEED: Angle: a biography of an intellectual as a late bloomer — the world-altering figure spent his first decade parroting his elders before forging anything original.