Friedman restructured public debate by reimagining the market as an infinite free resource

Evidence

Milton Friedman’s social philosophy invoked an optimistic language, ideological coherence, disciplinary prestige, and policy imagination that suited the needs of this new age. Combating repre sen ta tions of the market as a volatile engine that required both veneration and constraint, he reimagined it as an infi nite resource that yielded social benefi ts in proportion to the extent it was set free. Although Friedman often failed to convert the public to his specifi c views, over time his rhetorical audacity succeeded in restructuring the terms of pop u lar debate. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 563

Categorization

• XREF: The reimagining of the market from something needing constraint to something yielding benefits in proportion to freedom connects to the broader neoliberal reframing of freedom and the state the reader is tracking. — connects to: Friedman saw market expansion as reducing the need for political deliberation — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 794
• SEED: An essay angle: how mundane rhetorical moves, not formal economic arguments, changed what ‘the market’ means in popular discourse — the victory of metaphor over technical economics.

Broader Connections

• Friedman saw market expansion as reducing the need for political deliberation #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 794