Free To Choose

The story people like to tell about Social Security is that it's a sort of government-imposed retirement fund. Money is taken from your paycheck, put into an account, and then, when you get to a certain age, you receive payments from that account. But that's not really how it works. The money workers have taken from their incomes today goes to pay current retirees, not their own retirement years from now, like a private retirement account would. The simple truth is that Social Security isn't a retirement plan. It's a redistribution program. And if it's going to continue, there are better ways to go about it.

While the stories of super-powered business founders who seem to be good at all aspects of running a company—from technical know-how to people skills to bookkeeping—might be appealing, the truth is that nobody is actually good at everything. And while a lack of aptitude in some areas might feel disheartening to many entrepreneurs, according to Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic, the solution is shockingly simple: self-awareness. Check out our latest Featured Finds article to learn more about Daniela's insights and how they apply to any entrepreneur or business leader. blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/2026/03/daniel…

“With the millions and millions of veterans that are out there, I think it would be difficult for the government to handle all of that. If those nonprofits were not in this space, I think there'd be a catastrophe in our veteran community.” This is where nonprofits become essential infrastructure. They fill gaps that would otherwise become catastrophes. They transform veterans' desire to serve into new missions: "I can't serve my country anymore, but I can still serve people." Watch The True Cost of Defense. freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/true_…

The weather is warming, the flowers are blooming, and the deadline for filing your taxes is coming up fast. Nobody likes them; everybody pays them. But to channel our inner Jerry Seinfeld, what is the deal with taxes? Taxes exist outside the framework of capitalism. They're neither voluntary nor a true form of trade. So why are we talking about them in a series about capitalism? Spoiler: because they affect economic decision-making. Check out our latest installment in our capitalism blog series to discover why. blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/2026/03/taxes-…

Rose Wilder Lane saw what many Americans miss: your freedom doesn't come from the ballot box. Voting matters, but it's not what protects your liberty. What protects you is the Constitution's limits on power—and your willingness to defend those limits when officials try to exceed them. The real question isn't who you vote for. It's whether you'll hold them accountable once they're in office. This Women's History Month, we're celebrating Lane, who understood that eternal vigilance isn't just a catchphrase—it's the price of keeping government in check.

Complexity in the tax code isn't a bug—it's a feature. Politicians profit twice: from those seeking special breaks and from those trying to avoid special burdens. A simple tax system would eliminate these avenues.

Milton Friedman makes a sharp observation: we talk endlessly about profits, but losses are what make free enterprise work. Markets force failed ventures to close. Government? It rewards failure with expansion. Friedman argues the loss mechanism—not the profit incentive—is what makes markets work.

When people talk about inequality, they often miss the rules of the game itself. How many entrepreneurial dreams die not from lack of talent or effort, but from regulations designed to benefit those already established? Walter Williams explains. The insiders use government power to rig the system, keeping outsiders from even reaching the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Capitalism doesn't create these barriers. Government does. And breaking down these artificial walls—occupational licensing requirements, business permits that cost thousands, zoning laws that prevent competition—would do more for economic mobility than most redistribution schemes ever could. What other government-created barriers have you encountered that prevent people from building better lives?

Recorded in 2023, 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, speaks with Barbara Kolm, Ph.D., Director, The Austrian Economics Center and President of the Friedrich August von Hayek Institute, and Robert Salinas Leon, Ph.D., Director, Center for Latin America at Atlas Network and President of the Mexico Business Forum about the nature, rise, and consequences of authoritarianism and autocracy around the world, examined through a free-market, classical liberal lens. Listen now: blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/podcast/episod…

Isabel Paterson understood that production and profit aren't separate concepts. They're two sides of the same coin. Whether potatoes or products, if you don't get back more than you invested, you haven't produced anything—you've just moved things around. Real production always creates value. That value is profit. This Women's History Month, we're celebrating Isabel Paterson, whose 1943 book "The God of the Machine" challenged the economic orthodoxies of her time and continues to inspire free-market thinkers today.

Your real tax burden isn't just what you pay the IRS. It's also the opportunities you don't pursue, the decisions you make solely to avoid taxes, and the resources spent on shelters and compliance. Friedman explains why simplifying the system threatens two powerful groups who benefit from complexity.

Happy National Barbie Day! 🎀 In 1959, Ruth Handler didn't just create a doll—she revolutionized an entire industry. While toymakers mass-produced dolls for years, Handler created the first toy with adult features. Barbie wasn't just different—she was a category creator. Handler pioneered direct-to-consumer advertising by making Barbie the sole sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club, marketing directly to children. At the time, this approach was revolutionary. From one doll to over one billion sold across 150+ countries, Handler built a brand that transcended borders and generations. The modern Barbie continues Handler's legacy of evolution—adapting to changing times while honoring pioneering women in business, science, and education. Ruth Handler didn't just sell dolls. She built an empire by understanding her market, innovating her medium, and never stopping to evolve.

Rose Friedman co-wrote Free To Choose, the bestselling book that brought free-market economics to millions of readers worldwide. She didn't see herself as competing with Milton professionally. But she was his intellectual partner in every sense—a scholar and writer whose clear thinking about economic freedom, school choice, and individual liberty shaped policy debates across the globe. On International Women's Day, we're thinking about Rose's contributions to the ideas that continue to advance human flourishing.

The withholding system fundamentally altered the relationship between citizens and their government. When you never see the money, you never miss it. When you never miss it, you rarely question it. Friedman's admission about his wartime work at Treasury carries weight precisely because he understood the consequences. Creating a mechanism that makes taxation painless wasn't a neutral technical achievement. It was a shift in the balance of power. The property tax remains hated not because it takes more, but because it demands acknowledgment. Writing a check forces a decision, however brief. Automatic deduction requires nothing, which is exactly the point. Visibility breeds accountability. Invisibility breeds acceptance.

The numbers tell one story: $800+ billion spent on defense annually. But behind every dollar is a human story—veterans rebuilding their lives, recruiters working Friday night football games, and communities whose very existence depends on nearby bases. Discover what America's military supremacy really costs. Watch The True Cost of Defense. freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/true_…

This week marks National Consumer Protection Week, and that protection can take many forms. Some believe consumers need government agencies to make decisions for them. Others argue the best protection comes from competition and the freedom to choose. Milton Friedman concluded that when bureaucrats decide what's good for us, they don't just regulate products—they regulate freedom itself. The question isn't whether consumers deserve protection, but who protects them better: centralized agencies or competitive markets where businesses must earn customer trust to survive?

Economic success does not exist in a vacuum. It is not an end in and of itself. Economic outcomes, broadly speaking, are side effects of a society's attitudes and policies, and those are side effects of its morality and ethics. The Western tradition of individualism encourages choice, while the centralized command-and-control attitudes of collectivist cultures actively try to eliminate it. To continue with Thatcher's conclusion, "Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice, there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose."

If your top tax rate was only 25%, would you bother spending 50 cents on the dollar to find a tax shelter? Would you hire expensive lawyers to avoid 25 cents? Milton Friedman argued it's not a theory, it's arithmetic. High rates don't just tax income; they make avoiding taxes the smartest financial decision available. The result: less reported income, more complexity, and a system that rewards avoidance over productivity.

Friedman's position here is sometimes mistaken for a concession to big government. It isn't. A world without taxes or a government that collects them would be nice, in theory, but not particularly realistic to achieve. Acknowledging that some taxation is necessary to fund courts, police, and national defense was, for Friedman, both reasonable and unavoidable. The real questions about taxation aren't about whether or not it happens, but whether they're funding activities beyond what's necessary and whether they're hurting the overall economy more than not.

No nation is able to produce everything to fully satisfy every need and desire of the people living in it. And even if they could, they really shouldn't. Voluntary trade, the bedrock of capitalism, means that people do what they're best at and exchange with others for what they're not. This same principle scales up to nations, too. A complicated—but intuitive—balancing act among division of labor, specialization, and comparative advantage informs the decision-making process of what makes sense for you to do for yourself and what's better to have someone else do for you. Check out the latest in our capitalism blog series to explore why what seems like a complicated process is actually quite easy to understand. blog.freetochoosenetwork.org/2026/02/capita…