{"id":17192,"date":"2011-01-04T08:19:29","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T08:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=17192"},"modified":"2011-01-06T07:32:25","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T07:32:25","slug":"milton-friedman%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98capitalism-and-the-jews%e2%80%99-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=17192","title":{"rendered":"Milton Friedman\u2019s \u2018Capitalism and the Jews\u2019 Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilad Atzmon \u2013 Gilad.co.uk January 3, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the severity and uncertainty of the economic\u00a0crisis we are all\u00a0experiencing, I suggest we look once more\u00a0at the work of Milton Friedman,\u00a0the leading economist and a staunch advocate of hard capitalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the 1960s -80s Friedman was regarded by many academics, politicians and world leaders as the\u00a0most important post- World War Two\u00a0economist. Friedman was chief economic advisor to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Menachem Begin. He also went on record advising the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0is far from surprising to note\u00a0that more and more commentators have realised in recent years that it was\u00a0Friedman\u2019s ideology and advocacy of free enterprise, zero governmental intervention and privatisation\u00a0that has\u00a0led to the current financial turmoil. It was Milton Friedman\u2019s philosophy that also contributed to the transformation of the West into a service economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Friedman wasn\u2019t just an economist: he was also a devout Zionist and a very proud Jew. Friedman was\u00a0interested in the role of the Jews in world finance and\u00a0politics.\u00a0He also attempted to analyse and understand the attitude\u00a0of Jews\u00a0towards wealth. In 1972 Friedman spoke to The Mont Pelerin Society about\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>Capitalism and the Jews<\/span><\/a>\u201d. In 1978 he repeated the same <\/span>talk<\/span><\/a>, addressing\u00a0 Jewish students at the Chicago University\u2019s Hillel institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’d\u00a0suggest\u00a0that\u00a0Friedman deserves our immediate attention, since he\u00a0contributed to the rise of an\u00a0ideology and school of thought\u00a0that\u00a0bears some responsibility for the rearrangement (some might say dismantling ) of\u00a0 the West’s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish Paradox<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friedman was, no doubt, a sharp intellect, and could offer sharp and succinct criticism. Yet, Friedman was not\u00a0entirely ‘a cosmopolitan’ in\u00a0every sense of that word, since\u00a0he was deeply involved in Jewish concerns and Zionist affairs, and he was deliberately open and transparent about being so.<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0the talks he gave in\u00a01972 and 1978, Friedman examined a unique Jewish paradox :\u00a0 \u201cHere are two propositions,\u201d he said. \u201cEach of them are validated by evidence yet they are both incompatible\u00a0 one with the other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The first proposition is that \u201cthere are few peoples if any in the world who owe so great a debt to free enterprise and competitive capitalism as the Jews.\u201c<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The second proposition is that\u00a0 \u201cthere are few peoples or any in the world who have done so much to undermine the intellectual foundation of capitalism as the Jews.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How do we reconcile these two contradictory propositions?<\/span><\/p>\n

As one may gather by now, Friedman, the free enterprise advocate, was clearly convinced that monopoly and government intervention were bad news in general; but, more crucially for him, they were also very bad for the Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWherever there is a monopoly, whether it be private or governmental, there is room for the application of arbitrary criteria in the selection of the beneficiaries of the monopoly\u2014whether these criteria be color of skin, religion, national origin or what not. Where there is free competition, only performance counts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman, clearly prefers competition. According to him\u00a0 \u201cthe market is color blind. No one who goes to the market to buy bread knows or cares whether the wheat was grown by a Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, or atheist; by whites or blacks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s\u00a0elaborates further:\u00a0\u201cAny miller who wishes to express his personal prejudices by buying only from preferred groups is at a competitive disadvantage, since he is keeping himself from buying from the cheapest source. He can express his prejudice, but he will have to do so at his own expense, accepting a lower monetary income than he could otherwise earn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cJews\u201d Friedman continues,\u00a0 \u201chave flourished most in those countries in which competitive capitalism had the greatest scope: Holland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Britain and the U.S. in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Friedman, it is also no accident that Jews suffered the most in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, for these countries clearly defied free market ideology.<\/span><\/p>\n

One may\u00a0suggest at this point, that though it is undoubtedly true that Jews suffered in Soviet Russia and in Nazi Germany, and though it is also true that these countries defied free market ideology —\u00a0Friedman fails to establish a causal or even rational relationship between the opposition to the\u00a0free market, and anti Jewish policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the message Friedman conveys is clear —\u00a0Jews do benefit from hard capitalism and competitive markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, Friedman is also genuinely intrigued by Jewish intellectuals’ affinity\u00a0with anti-Capitalism :\u00a0\u201cJews have been a stronghold of anti-capitalist sentiment. From Karl Marx through Leon Trotsky to Herbert Marcuse, a sizable fraction of the revolutionary anti-capitalist literature has been authored by Jews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

How could that be,\u00a0Friedman wonders? Why is it that, despite the historical record of the benefits of competitive capitalism to the Jews; despite the intellectual explanation of this phenomenon that is implicit or explicit in much\u00a0liberal literature from at least Adam Smith onwards, the Jews have been disproportionately anti-capitalist?<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman considers some answers —\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather often we hear from Jews on the left that their affinity to humanitarian issues is driven by their \u2018Jewish humanist heritage\u2019. More than once I myself have commented that this is an utter lie. There is no such\u00a0a Jewish heritage. Driven by\u00a0tribal precepts, both Judaism and ‘Jewish ideology’ are devoid of universal ethics. If there are some remote patches of humanism in Jewish culture, these are certainly far from being universal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman, however, offered a further take on the subject:\u00a0In direct reference to Lawrence Fuchs who argues that the anti-capitalism of the Jews is a \u201cdirect reflection of values derived from the Jewish religion and culture,\u201d Friedman wonders —\u00a0if Jewish culture is, indeed,\u00a0inherently anti capitalist\u00a0 (as Fuchs suggests) how is it then, that Jews failed to successfully\u00a0combat Capitalism and free markets\u00a0throughout their history?\u00a0 Friedman analyses that whilst \u201cJewish religion and culture date back over two millennia; the Jewish opposition to capitalism and attachment to socialism, is at the most, less than two centuries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a sharp intellect then, Friedman managed to dismantle\u00a0 Fuchs\u2019s argument. He managed to counter the argument that Jewish culture is inherently socialist or humanist. If Judaism is, indeed,\u00a0inherently and innately\u00a0bound to such ethics, how is it that this humanism failed to\u00a0become dominant throughout\u00a0Jewish history?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman also reflects in a surprisingly respectful manner, on the writing of alleged anti Semite Werner Sombart\u2019s <\/span>The Jews and Modern Capitalism<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Sombart <\/em>identifies Jewish ideology at the heart of capitalism. \u201cThroughout the centuries, the Jews championed the cause of individual liberty in economic activity against the dominating view of the time. The individual was not to be hampered by regulations of any sort. I think that the Jewish religion has the same leading ideas as capitalism . . . \u201c(1)<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Jewish intellectuals at the time were largely unhappy with Sombart\u2019s book, Milton Friedman is brave enough to admit that there is nothing in\u00a0 Sombart\u2019s book itself to justify any charge of anti-Semitism (though, he argues,\u00a0 there certainly is in Sombart\u2019s later work).\u00a0 Friedman, a proud capitalist, tends actually to interpret Sombart\u2019s book as \u201cphilo-Semitic\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf, like me\u201d, says Friedman, \u201cyou regard competitive capitalism as the economic system that is most favorable to individual freedom, to creative accomplishments in technology and the arts, and to the widest possible opportunities for the ordinary man, then you will regard Sombart\u2019s assignment to the Jews of a key role in the development of capitalism as high praise. You will, as I do, regard his book as philo-Semitic. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n

Milton Friedman may even agree with early Marx, that Capitalism is Jewish ‘by nature’. Yet, while Marx believed that in order for the world to liberate itself from Capitalism\u00a0 it had better emancipate itself from\u00a0the Jews (3), for Friedman capitalism is\u00a0of profound value\u00a0and to be respected, and Jews\u00a0should be praised for their inherent bond with this philosophy and its diverse ramifications. As far as Friedman is concerned, for Capitalism to prevail, Jews\u00a0should\u00a0continue to\u00a0do what they are good at: and that is to trade freely in an open and competitive market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman seems to dismiss the presumed\u00a0 ‘intellectual honesty’ behind Jewish affiliation with the left and anti capitalism:\u00a0He tends to argue that the Jewish intellectual inclination towards the left is a direct outcome of some political and historical circumstances, rather than ethical or ideological choice. He explains that, in his\u00a0view,\u00a0Jewish affiliation with the left is the product of a particular occurrence in Europe in the nineteenth century.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeginning with the era of the French revolution, the European political spectrum became divided into a \u201cLeft\u201d and a \u201cRight\u201d along an axis that involved the issue of secularism. The Right (conservative, Monarchical, \u201cclerical\u201d) maintained that there must be a place for the church in the public order; the left (democratic, liberal, radical) held that there can be no Church at all . . . .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was only natural, then,\u00a0for the Jews to join the left\u00a0—\u00a0in fact Jews could only<\/em> join the left.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe axis separating left from right also formed a natural boundary for the pale of Jewish political participation. It was the left, with its new secular concept of citizenship, that had accomplished the Emancipation, and it was only the left that could see a place for the Jews in public life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a reasoning,\u00a0then, views\u00a0Jewish affiliation with the left as a politically opportunistic move instead of a form of \u2018moral awakening\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a reading of the ‘Jewish left’ reaffirms my own critical assessment. It also explains why some Jews join the left —\u00a0they support cosmopolitanism, solidarity, an international working class; and yet, they\u00a0themselves\u00a0 often seem to\u00a0prefer to operate within\u00a0 \u2018Jews only\u2019 racially orientated\u00a0 cells such as the Bund,\u00a0 Jewish Socialists or even Jews For Boycott of Israeli Goods. Friedman\u2019s\u00a0 reasoning might also explain why\u00a0so many Jews who had their roots in the so- called \u2018left\u2019, \u00a0ended up preaching moral interventionism and Neo Conservatism.(4)<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman argues also, that Jewish affiliation with the left\u00a0might\u00a0be better understood as\u00a0an attempt to disown some anti Semitic stereotypes of the Jew as\u00a0being\u00a0 \u201ca merchant or moneylender who put commercial interests ahead of human values.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Friedman, the Jewish anti capitalist is there to prove that, far from being money-grabbing, selfish and heartless, Jews are really public spirited, generous, and concerned with ideals rather than material goods. \u201cHow better to do so than to attack the market with its reliance on monetary values and impersonal transactions and to glorify the political process, to take as an ideal a state run by well-meaning people for the benefit of their fellow men?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet,\u00a0in Friedman’s logic then,\u00a0it is not\u00a0a \u2018moral awakening\u2019 that moves the Jew to the left; it is neither humanism, nor solidarity and\u00a0nor is it\u00a0kindness, but, instead, it seems to be a desperate attempt to replace or amend the Jewish image.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Surprisingly enough, I find myself in total agreement with Friedman, though I would phrase it differently. I do differentiate between \u2018the leftist who happen to be Jewish\u2019- an innocent category inspired by humanism,\u00a0 and \u2018the Jewish leftist- which seems to me to be a contradiction in terms, for the left aims to universally transcends itself beyond ethnicity, religion or race.\u00a0 Clearly \u2018Jewish left\u2019 is there to maintain a Jewish tribal ethno-centric identity at the heart of working class philosophy. ‘Jewish left’ is there to primarily serve Jewish interests<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0noticed that Richard Kuper, the European Jewish activist behind the recent Jewish Boat to Gaza,\u00a0was quoted as saying\u00a0\u00a0that their\u00a0 goal\u00a0was to show that \u201cnot all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems to me that the message Kuper conveyed was pretty clear:\u00a0Rather than being driven entirely by a genuine care for the Palestinians in Gaza, the Jewish boat was also engaged in a symbolic exchange.\u00a0 It was also\u00a0there to save the image of the Jews rather than solely providing humanitarian support. This fact alone may explain why the Jewish boat hardly carried any humanitarian aid for the Gazans. Rather than a \u2018humanitarian aid mission for the Palestinians,\u2019\u00a0 it was\u00a0probably also\u00a0an \u2018image rescue for the Jews\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seemingly then, Friedman managed to resolve the paradox between his two initial propositions (Jews being the benefactors capitalism vs. Jews being profoundly anti-capitalist) by offering an historical and political explanation:\u00a0Jews or Jewish intellectuals are not really against capitalism; it was just the \u201cspecial circumstances of nineteenth-century that drove Jews to the left, and the subconscious attempts by Jews to demonstrate to themselves and the world the fallacy of the anti-Semitic stereotype.\u201d It was neither ideology nor ethics.<\/span><\/p>\n

This interpretation explains why left Zionism was doomed to disappear.\u00a0During his talks, Friedman reviewed the right\/left political division in Israel. He noticed that two opposing traditions were at work in the Jewish State: \u201can ancient one–going back nearly two thousand years– of finding ways around governmental restrictions (and) a modern one– going back a century– of belief in \u201cdemocratic socialism\u201d and \u201ccentral planning.\u201d\u00a0 Friedman was clever enough to gather already in 1972 that it is the \u201cJewish tradition\u201d, rather than \u2018socialism\u2019, that would prevail. Friedman noticed already in the 1970\u2019s that Israel was capitalist to the bone. He predicted that the short phase of Zionist \u2018pseudo socialism\u2019 was foreign to Jewish culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet. It isn\u2019t just Israeli left that was doomed to die. Friedman’s reading of Jewish culture also explains why the Bund (5) died; it didn\u2019t really spread to the West; it also explains why the legendary Mazpen and other Jewish\u00a0tribal anti Zionist revolutionary\u00a0groups have never attracted the Jewish masses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friedman is not free of fault. In spite of his succinct reading of the Jewish left\/right divide there are a few crucial points that have to be made about Friedman\u2019s reading of Jewish culture, and his reading of capitalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman argues that the free market and competition is good for the Jews. Yet he is\u00a0also adamant that Government intervention is a disaster that leads to anti Semitism and other forms of institutional bigotry. If Friedman\u2019s model is valid, then Jews in the West had better brace themselves, for Western Governments are currently\u00a0intervening in the markets\u00a0 in a desperate attempt to slowdown the inevitable collapse of what is left of our economy and relative wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Friedman\u2019s model is correct, and intervention is indeed bad for the Jews, then anti Jewish bigotry\u00a0could be\u00a0immanent, especially considering the gigantic bailout\u00a0 intervention schemes put up\u00a0 by states in an attempt to save what remains of the Western economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it goes further —\u00a0it is also plainly clear that the bailout schemes are there to amend a colossal disaster caused by the endorsement of Friedman\u2019s own ideology. We are all paying a very heavy price for\u00a0free enterprise, hard capitalism, or, in general, the ideologies Friedman was so enthusiastic about.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is something\u00a0 Friedman didn\u2019t tell his listeners in\u00a0 the 1970s —\u00a0He himself probably did not\u00a0realise the full meaning of his economic model. He himself did not realise that the adoption of his philosophy by Roland Reagan and Margaret Thatcher would eventually bring the West\u00a0to its knees.\u00a0 He himself did not\u00a0realise that it was his own advocacy of hard capitalism that would lead Western continents to poverty and deprivation. He\u00a0perhaps did not\u00a0realise back in the 1970s that it was his model that would eventually eliminate productivity, and every positive aspect of the welfare state. Milton Friedman did not\u00a0realise at the time that service economy that suited some ethnic minorities for two millennia wouldn\u2019t necessarily be a successful model once adopted into a macro model. As Friedman had gathered,\u00a0throughout their history Jews and other ethnic minorities were very effective operating as service economy within competitive and productive markets. However, Jews and other ethnic or religious\u00a0 minorities did well\u00a0 because others\u00a0were there to work around them. The transforming of the West into a service economy driven by relentless greed, a process that followed Friedman\u2019s economic precepts, is now proving to be a disaster. It means poverty and global depression. It is translated\u00a0into alienation from labour and productivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friedman may have been correct when he predicted that governmental intervention may lead to anti Semitism —\u00a0yet, he probably failed to realise that it was largely his own intellectual\u00a0 heritage that\u00a0would be\u00a0responsible for the current financial disaster. It is in fact his own economic model and\u00a0 prophecy that could also\u00a0introduce Jews to far more suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

(1)(<\/span>http:\/\/classiques.uqac.ca\/classiques\/sombart_werner\/Jews_and_modern_capitalism\/sombart_jews_capitalism.pdf<\/span><\/a> (pg\u2019109-110)<\/span><\/p>\n

(2)ibid 174<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

(3)\u201cWhat is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical<\/em> need, self-interest<\/em>. What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering<\/em>. What is his worldly God? Money<\/em>. Very well then! Emancipation from huckstering and money, consequently from practical, real Judaism, would be the self-emancipation of our time.\u201d Karl Marx On The Jewish Question<\/em>, 1844<\/span><\/p>\n

(4)David Miliband, David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen are all\u00a0 good\u00a0 examples of the above.<\/span><\/p>\n

(5) East European\u00a0 Jewish Socialist Party was formed in 1897 as the tthe General Jewish Labour Bund of Lithuania, Poland and Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the light of the current economic crisis, Gilad Atzmon looks again at the ideas of Milton Friedman. Includes video <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17192"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17330,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17192\/revisions\/17330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}