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.

01/15/2026

Most discussions about equality mix up very different concepts. When Walter Williams draws the line between equality before the law and equality of opportunity, he's highlighting a distinction that matters for how we think about freedom itself.

The real question isn't whether everyone should have identical chances at everything—that's impossible. The question is whether the rules apply the same way to everyone. One protects liberty. The other often undermines it.

What does equality mean to you?

Today’s podcast is titled “Political Polarization: What Caused It? Part One.”Recorded in 2022, Dennis McCuistion, former...
01/15/2026

Today’s podcast is titled “Political Polarization: What Caused It? Part One.”

Recorded in 2022, 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, with speaker and author Jim Cathcart, psychologist Dr. Terry Paulson, former chair of Amnesty International USA Chip Pitts, and author Robert Hall discuss America’s deep political polarization following the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election of 2020.

Listen now, and don’t forget to subscribe to get updates for the Free To Choose Media Podcast. https://blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/podcast/episode-257-political-polarization-what-caused-it-part-one-podcast/

Hayek wasn't making a prediction here—he was describing a law as reliable as gravity. Economic freedom can exist under a...
01/13/2026

Hayek wasn't making a prediction here—he was describing a law as reliable as gravity.

Economic freedom can exist under all sorts of regimes. But political freedom—the kind where government can't dictate how you live your life—requires that people control their own economic choices first.

Strip away someone's ability to earn, spend, and build as they see fit, and their "rights" become whatever privileges the state decides to grant that day. The marketplace quietly undermines tyranny in ways "political reform" never could.

Every trade, every transaction, every choice chips away at centralized control until freedom becomes inevitable.

01/12/2026

Almost 50 years ago, Milton Friedman explained what politicians still try to hide: deficit spending isn't free money—it's just taxation by another name.

When the government spends more than it collects, someone has to pay, but who picks up the check?

You do. Through inflation—the hidden tax nobody votes for but everyone pays.

01/09/2026

When Milton Friedman spoke these words, he was describing a fundamental shift in how people viewed government's role in solving problems. That shift didn't happen because politicians changed their minds—it happened because citizens did.

The relationship between inflation and unemployment remains one of the most consequential economic trade-offs we face. Yet the conventional wisdom about which problem matters more, and what government should do about it, has reversed itself multiple times across generations.

What's changed since Friedman made this observation? And more importantly, what hasn't?

01/08/2026

The all-volunteer force costs more than conscription ever did. Higher pay, longer training cycles, better retention incentives—it all adds up. But the architects of this system in 1973 argued these costs would produce a fighting force that conscription never could: professional, skilled, and genuinely committed to military service.

What does it cost to build a military where people choose to serve, and choose to stay? Watch The True Cost of Defense to explore how this transformation reshaped everything from training to retention. https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/true_cost_of_defense/

01/07/2026

Since 2021, over 5 million people have discovered why Thomas Sowell is considered one of the most influential economists and political philosophers of our era. Five years after its release, "Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World" continues to introduce new audiences to Sowell's insights on race, history, and economics—ideas that remain as relevant today as when he first articulated them.

Watch the full documentary to see the journey from humble beginnings to the Hoover Institution, and find out why so many consider him "the smartest person in the room." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4M9iJrgto&list=PLTplBPPoWdX3s5JHEWFEIpS-deSE27u62

Markets aren't just about money—they're about power. When economic decisions are made by millions of individuals rather ...
01/06/2026

Markets aren't just about money—they're about power. When economic decisions are made by millions of individuals rather than a handful of bureaucrats, authority gets distributed instead of concentrated. That's the real stakes of the capitalism debate: who gets to make decisions about your life.

01/05/2026

The setup: It’s 1978 and President Carter announces a major tax cut. $25 billion. Politicians debate whether to go bigger or smaller. Americans anticipate relief.

Friedman's analysis: Look at all the numbers.

Social Security payroll taxes were being increased. A bill marketed as "energy policy" was actually raising substantial new taxes. And inflation—the silent tax collector—was pushing more income into higher brackets without anyone voting for it.

Add it all up: The increases exceeded the proposed cuts. Total tax burden was rising.

"The plain fact is that nobody is proposing to cut taxes. What is being proposed is simply to shift taxes from one kind to another."

If you call a tax shuffle a "tax cut," does it become one?

01/03/2026

When people talk about fixing economic problems, they often point to the president. But as Milton Friedman explains in this clip, understanding where power actually resides matters more than knowing who sits in the Oval Office.

The Federal Reserve controls monetary policy. Congress controls spending through appropriations. The president has influence over both, but direct control over neither.

This distinction becomes crucial when economic crises demand action. Knowing which levers exist, who can pull them, and how citizens can influence those decisions determines whether problems get solved or simply blamed on (or credited to) the wrong people.

Happy New Year from everyone at Free To Choose Network! Here's to 2026—a year of fresh starts, big ideas, and the freedo...
01/01/2026

Happy New Year from everyone at Free To Choose Network! Here's to 2026—a year of fresh starts, big ideas, and the freedom to set resolutions we might actually keep this time.

“The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most of hi...
12/30/2025

“The heart of the liberal philosophy is a belief in the dignity of the individual, in his freedom to make the most of his capacities and opportunities according to his own lights, subject only to the proviso that he not interfere with the freedom of other individuals to do the same.”

Freedom isn't about getting what you want at someone else's expense. It's about creating the conditions where everyone can pursue their own version of success—on their own terms, through their own effort.

Milton Friedman understood that real dignity comes from agency, not control. The liberal tradition he championed wasn't about top-down planning or collective mandates. It was about trusting people to figure out their own paths forward, as long as they respect everyone else's right to do the same.

That simple principle—mutual respect for individual liberty—is what makes prosperity possible. It's also what makes a genuinely free society worth defending.

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