Free To Choose Network

Free To Choose Network Building support for personal, economic, and political freedom with entertaining media.

Free To Choose® Network is a global media 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that brought you Milton Friedman’s original 1980 10-part television series, Free To Choose. It continues to use accessible and entertaining media to build popular support for capitalism as well as personal and political freedom.

12/09/2025

Before 1914, America had truly open borders—no quotas, no waiting lists, no visa categories. If you could afford passage and weren't carrying disease, you were in. Most people today agree this was beneficial. Yet those same people recoil at the idea of open borders now, convinced it would lead to disaster.

Friedman's question cuts through the confusion: What actually changed? The principle that people respond to incentives hasn't changed. The economic benefits of voluntary exchange—whether goods, services, or labor—haven't changed. Human nature hasn't changed. So why do we celebrate unrestricted immigration in 1900 but treat it as unthinkable today?

Perhaps the answer lies more in economic policy than in immigration itself.

Walter Williams understood something critics of capitalism often miss: when you're free to say no, saying yes actually m...
12/09/2025

Walter Williams understood something critics of capitalism often miss: when you're free to say no, saying yes actually means something. Every purchase, every job accepted, every contract signed in a free market represents a genuine agreement between people pursuing their own interests. No bureaucrat needed, no permission required, no force involved—just individuals freely choosing to cooperate because both sides benefit. That's the moral foundation skeptics overlook when they assume capitalism requires winners and losers. Dr. Williams knew better: voluntary exchange creates mutual winners, while coercion always creates resentment.

12/08/2025

Milton Friedman exposes a startling paradox in our welfare system: if poverty program money actually reached those it's meant to help, recipients would be wealthy. Friedman breaks down how our welfare system fails the very people it claims to serve. The money gets lost in the bureaucratic maze, benefiting everyone except those who need it most. The answer isn't more funding but fundamental reform.

12/05/2025

Roosevelt's New Deal programs were launched with the best of intentions—to rescue Americans from Depression-era hardship. The government promised security through public works, welfare programs, and new federal agencies. But somewhere between good intentions and actual results, something went wrong. The bureaucracy expanded, costs ballooned, and dependency deepened.

Milton Friedman explains how we willingly surrendered power to government in exchange for promised security, and why that bargain hasn't delivered the outcomes we hoped for.

Today’s podcast is titled “The Controversy Over Affirmative Action.”Recorded in 1997, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical...
12/04/2025

Today’s podcast is titled “The Controversy Over Affirmative Action.”

Recorded in 1997, Dennis McCuistion, former Clinical Professor of Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas, Dalton Cross Professor of Law at University of Texas at Austin Lino Graglia, and former University of California Regent, businessman and activist Ward Connerly discuss the state of race-based preferences in education and employment.

Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast. https://blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/podcast/episode-255-the-controversy-over-affirmative-action-podcast/

12/01/2025

Milton Friedman cuts through the budget deficit debate with a crucial insight: Every federal budget is actually balanced - you're just paying for it in different ways. Whether through explicit taxes, inflation, or borrowing, the cost always lands on us. The real question isn't about deficits, it's about total government spending as a share of our income. Control that, and the rest takes care of itself.

Today marks five years since the passing of Walter Williams, one of the most influential economists and public intellect...
12/01/2025

Today marks five years since the passing of Walter Williams, one of the most influential economists and public intellectuals of his generation.

Dr. Williams built his career on an unwavering commitment to truth and intellectual honesty, even when his conclusions challenged conventional wisdom. From his groundbreaking work on labor markets and discrimination to his decades as a syndicated columnist, he made complex economic principles accessible to millions of Americans. His willingness to question popular narratives about race, poverty, and government intervention made him controversial, but never deterred him from pursuing what he believed to be right.

Whether in the classroom at George Mason University or on airwaves and the pages of newspapers nationwide, Dr. Williams combined rigorous economic analysis with clarity and conviction. His legacy lives on in the countless students he mentored, the readers he educated, and the ongoing debates his work continues to spark.

We're grateful for his contributions to economic thought and the cause of human freedom.

11/29/2025

Ideas are cheap. Durable ideas are rare.

Friedman understood the difference. He didn't worry much about winning arguments with his contemporaries. He cared whether his work would still be useful decades later, still solving problems, still worth teaching to people who'd never heard his name.

Time is brutal to most scholarship. The debates fade, the controversies lose their heat, and what looked brilliant in the moment gets quietly retired from the textbooks. But some ideas keep working. They become part of how we think, so embedded we forget they weren't always obvious.

That's the standard Friedman set for himself. Not applause today, but utility tomorrow.

What do you think makes an idea last that long?

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Free To Choose Network!
11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Free To Choose Network!

World War II gets a lot of credit for ending the Great Depression. It's probably what you were taught in school. And on ...
11/26/2025

World War II gets a lot of credit for ending the Great Depression. It's probably what you were taught in school. And on the surface, it's almost understandable. Unemployment plummeted. GDP rose.

But there's a big difference between genuinely creating wealth and just breaking windows.

In the newest installment of our capitalism blog series, we sort out fact from economic fiction regarding the actual remedies for and end to the Great Depression.
https://blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/2025/11/did-government-intervention-and-a-world-war-end-the-great-depression/

As we approach Thanksgiving, it's worth remembering how the Plymouth Colony nearly failed before it ever had a chance to...
11/25/2025

As we approach Thanksgiving, it's worth remembering how the Plymouth Colony nearly failed before it ever had a chance to celebrate that first harvest.

Governor William Bradford wrote that when the Pilgrims held all property in common, the communal system "bred much confusion and discontent" and nearly starved them all.

After three years of failure, they assigned each family its own plot of land to work and keep whatever it produced. Bradford recorded that this "had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious." The colony began to prosper.

The lesson the Pilgrims learned through near starvation remains relevant today: people work harder and more creatively when they can benefit directly from their own effort.

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