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.

12/16/2025

For half a century, this principle has shaped how we defend ourselves—voluntary service by those who believe the cause is worth fighting for. It raises a fundamental question about how we fund and deploy our military: Are we allocating resources to missions Americans would willingly defend? The true cost of defense isn't just measured in dollars and equipment, but in whether our strategies honor the voluntary commitment of those who serve.

Watch The True Cost of Defense to explore how military spending decisions affect the Americans who answer the call. https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/true_cost_of_defense/

12/15/2025

Are consumer protection laws really protecting you? Milton Friedman argues most of these regulations simply enact the prejudices of organized lobbying groups. When the government decides you can't use saccharin, are you being protected or restricted? Friedman makes the case that competition and free trade—not government mandates—provides the most effective consumer protection.

12/12/2025

Reputation has always been the real protector of consumers. Long before government agencies existed, people relied on recommendations from friends, family, and trusted associates to make purchasing decisions. Businesses that cheated customers didn't survive.

The internet didn't create reputation-based commerce—it supercharged it. eBay, Amazon Marketplace, and countless other platforms simply made what always worked work faster and better. Millions of transactions happen daily based on star ratings and reviews. No regulatory agencies required.

Milton Friedman understood that reputation, not regulation, drives honest business practices. Modern technology just proved how right he was all along.

A policy tweak here, a rate adjustment there. Pull this lever, turn that nob. Policymakers and banking experts attemptin...
12/11/2025

A policy tweak here, a rate adjustment there. Pull this lever, turn that nob. Policymakers and banking experts attempting to fine-tune the economy like it's a machine, an engine we can squeeze a few more horsepower out of or a computer processor we can overclock.

But can we?

Economies aren't machines that behave only in the ways we tell them to. And even if they were, there's no way anyone could ever know what they need to do it properly. Even so, people try, and the inevitable result is what happened in 2008. Check out the latest in our capitalism blog series to understand why. https://blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/2025/12/can-you-really-manage-an-economy-like-a-machine-lets-ask-2008/

12/11/2025

Less than 1% of Americans serve in uniform today. That means most of us never see or think about what it takes to staff the world's most powerful military.

The responsibility falls to sergeants walking into high schools, asking young people to serve. What happens when military service becomes something most Americans never consider for themselves or their families?

The True Cost of Defense explores how defense decisions affect the people who actually live them. https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/true_cost_of_defense/

12/10/2025

Friedman identifies the central tension that makes pre-1914 immigration fundamentally different from immigration today. When newcomers arrived at Ellis Island, they came to work—there was no safety net waiting for them. Success or failure depended entirely on their own effort and ability to contribute value to others through voluntary exchange. That system worked because immigration was self-regulating: only those willing to take the risk and do the work made the journey.

Introduce expansive welfare programs, and the calculation changes entirely. Now immigration becomes a fiscal equation, not just an economic one. The issue isn't whether people want to come or whether they'd contribute—it's whether a system promising benefits to everyone regardless of contribution can sustain unlimited entry. Friedman wasn't making a moral argument about immigration. He was making an economic observation about incompatible incentive structures.

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/

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