The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

28MORALITYandCONTROLSMILTON FRIEDMANMOST DISCUSSION of the wagepricefreeze and the coming PhaseII controls has been strictly economicand operational: were theyneeded, will they work, how willthey operate. I have recorded myown opposition to them in threecolumns- in N eW8week.There has been essentially nodiscussion of a much more fundamentalissue. The controls aredeeply and inherently immoral. Bysubstituting the rule of men forthe rule of law and for voluntarycooperation in the marketplace,the controls threaten the veryfoundations of a free society. Byencouraging men to spy and reporton one another, by making itDr. Friedman, Professor of Economics, Universityof Chicago, needs no introduction toFREEMAN readers.This article was first published in two partsin The New York Times on October 28 and 29,1971. © 1971 by The New York Times Company.Reprinted by permission.in the private interest of largenumbers of citizens to evade thecontrols, and by making actionsillegal that are in. the public interest,the controls undermine individualmorality.One of the proudest achievementsof Western civilization wasthe substitution of the rule of lawfor the rule of men. The ideal isthat government restrictions onour behavior shall take the formof impersonal rules, applicable toall alike, and' interpreted and adjudicatedby an independent judiciaryrather than of specific ordersby a government official to namedindividuals. In principle, underthe rule of law, each of us canknow what he mayor may not doby consulting the law and determininghow it applies to his owncircumstances.The rule of law does not guaran-