Libertarian economist Milton Friedman passed away in 2006, which is a shame because he would likely be thrilled about what is happening in the United States right now with Elon Musk and DOGE under President Trump.
In 1999, Friedman gave an interview to Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution in which he was asked which government departments he would cut and which ones he would keep. It is essentially a preview of the work that Musk and DOGE are doing right now.
It’s amazing to see it now in the context of what is happening.
This Daily Mail report from last fall describes the interview:
Friedman said he would get rid of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Education, Labor, Transportation and Veteran Affairs.
He also recommended axing the department of Housing and Urban Development, which he said ‘has done an enormous amount of harm’ and has ‘destroyed parts of cities under the rubric of eliminating slums.’
Friedman the Department of Energy should also be abolished – ‘except when it ties in with the military.’
In terms of the National Institute of Health, Friedman said ‘There is room for some public health activities to prevent contagion,’ but he would abolish the agency, which he claimed ‘was mostly a research agency.’
‘That’s a question of whether the government should be involved in financing research, and that’s a very complicated issue and it’s not an easy answer,’ Friedman added.
Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.
He headed the Chicago School of Economics, a group of economic thinkers associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago.
Elon Musk shared the video on Twitter/X today. Watch the whole thing, this is amazing.
Wise words
pic.twitter.com/kuSuFSNEWh— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2025
On a side note, here’s a fun piece of trivia. Peter Robinson, who is interviewing Friedman in the video, was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and wrote the famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
