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When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union — like public housing in the United States — look decrepit within a year or two of their construction.

— Milton Friedman Free to Choose (1980)

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More quotes by Milton Friedman

With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.

The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.

One reason why money is a mystery to so many is the role of myth or fiction or convention.

Money Mischief (1992)

The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.

Capitalism and Freedom (1962)

To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them.

Capitalism and Freedom (1962)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Milton Friedman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.