Stigler accused Friedman of assuming voters are dumber than market agents

Evidence

On October 20 and 21, 1972, a conference was held at the University of Virginia in honor of Milton Friedman’s sixtieth birthday. It coincided with the tenth anniversary of the publication of Capitalism and Freedom, and so the conference was framed as an exploration of the issues raised by that book—of its “Problems and Prospects.” George Stigler took the occasion to express his concern about one troubling feature of the work of his old friend and close colleague: … As I mentally review Milton’s work, I recall no important occasion on which he has told businessmen how to behave … Yet Milton has shown no comparable reticence in advising Congress and public on monetary policy, tariffs, schooling, minimum wages, the tax benefits of establishing a ménage without benefit of clergy, and several other subjects … Why should businessmen—and customers and lenders and other economic agents—know and foster their own interests, but voters and political coalitions be so much in need of his and our lucid and enlightened instruction? — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 143

Categorization

• XREF: Fractures the Frankfurt-school caricature of unified Chicago; shows internal methodological debate over information and rationality. — connects to: Stigler thought public lectures on economics were useless and politically dangerous — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 145