Rad Sturgis

Friedman Paper

Milton Friedman was originally an actuary but when he encountered trouble

successfully passing all of his exams decided to reconsider his options and pursue
Economics as well during his time at Rutgers. He came from humble means with his
parents immigrating to America from what is now the Soviet Union. Jeno Saul Friedman
worked together with Milton’s mother Sarah selling dry goods. Despite having a job,
their income was often uncertain and small. Even with the unsure wages, Milton never
went hungry. He attended high school with his sisters and graduated in 1928. Also during
the year of 1928 his father passed away leaving his mother and two sisters to provide for
the family.

Friedman financed his way through college with the assistance of a scholarship and
through hard work waiting tables and working summers. During his time at college he
met two men that would change his life, Arthur Burns and Homer Jones. Burns
influenced Milton greatly through the scientific method and with his advanced economic
prowess. Homer ignited Milton’s passion for economics with his theories that made
economics exhilarating. After college, Friedman took up a fellowship at Columbia
University where he saw the mathematical side of economics.

In 1933, Milton would meet his wife and fellow economist Rose Director. They
waited six years to be married for the economy to recover. They would work together on
many of his economic works. After this, he returned to Chicago and worked under Henry
Schultz who was writing a book on “The theory of Economic Demand”. During this time,
he met two of the most important people in his life in W. Allen Wallis and George
Stigler. These two would come to be his life long friends.

He worked on his dissertation and ultimately published the works after the war due
to controversy over some of the conclusions that he had drawn. The book introduced the
concepts of transitory and permanent income. He would later work as a statistician for the
U.S. Treasury department and aid in the war efforts. The culmination of this work was on
Victory in Europe day in 1945. The knowledge that he gained from working in the
Bureau on how money affects the business cycle went into the workshop in Chicago
about Money and Banking.

He would return to the classroom, this time as a traveling Fulbright Professor. His
extreme views won him acceptance into Cambridge University. After working as
professor for many years, he turned to the public arena. He worked through the 1960’s as
an adviser serving with Nixion and Senator Goldwater. In 1977, he retired from teaching
at Chicago University and would later being his famous TV project.

This project would take him around the world and he tried to tackle many of the
pressing matters of the day as they related to economics. Free to Choose was done with
out a script and instead from Milton’s notes. This public forum allowed for commentary
on the best form of government and the importance of economic freedom as it relates to
political freedom.