Milton Friedman Quote

I think it is only because capitalism has proved so enormously more efficient than alternative methods that is has survived at all. (...) I'm not sure capitalism is the right word. There is a sense in which every society is capitalist. The Soviet Union was capitalist, but it was state capitalism. Latin American societies in the past have been capitalist, but it has been oligarchic capitalism. So what we really need to talk about is not capitalism but free market or competitive capitalism which is the system that we would like to have adopted, not just capitalism.

Interview with Parker in Randall E. Parker(ed.), Reflection on the Great Depression (2002)