Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Small Ironies

I was culling my books over the weekend, and decided to pitch out Milton and Rose Friedman's Free to Choose. This is striking me today as ironic, because I doubt that the West Virginia miners were free to choose much of anything.

At best, they made a choice based on misinformation--they thought they were working at a mine that met safety standards. Those of us who are tenured professors have indeed been free to chose; we can even say whatever we want without fear of losing our jobs. But to think everyone has such freedom is just delusional.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes! This has become my thinking exactly. Maybe because I see it everyday in my law practice. At a time when you can't change jobs even if you know you should it is that much more clear.

Interesting that Ayn Rand is such the rage with so many. Seams that Ike and LBJ had a better sense of these things.