[scarmig]

That's not exactly fair of Friedman; though he was definitely pretty conservative in his views, he was overall quite the empiricist and not much a radical ideologue.

There are numerous instances of him thinking government action is a good idea. For instance, back in the 90s he argued that the ideal health care policy would be one "with a requirement that every U.S. family unit have a major medical insurance policy," instituted by the federal government (in place of Medicare).

[luriel]

Friedman was not a conservative, he was a liberal (in the original sense of the word, and the sense still used everywhere outside the US): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNc2vzVsIM4

[jbellis]

Not sure why this is getting downvoted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism