Book assignment: Paper # 2

10/29/10

Claim: Critical Analysis of Worker’s Benefits and Protection as Presented in Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose.

In Chapter eight of his popular Free to Choose, Milton Friedman takes on labor unions and government intervention in labor markets. He disputes the commonly held notion that labor unions and government spending are the cause of improvements in the living standards and wages of workers over the 19th and 20th centuries. He argues that because only “3 percent of workers” were members of unions as late as 1900, and because government regulation of the labor market was minimal prior to the New Deal, these two factors clearly had a limited role in the improvements in workers’ standard of living (228). Instead he points to the idea that when “no one”—or the invisible hand of the market—is instead responsible for protecting workers and improving their lives, workers see the most benefit. Friedman’s conclusion is that workers lot will improve most if the influence of union and government is reduced (247). Since 1980, when the book was published, there has been a steady decline in the percentage of workers who are members of labor unions, while the minimum wage has fallen behind inflation, effectively decreasing. Given that situation, it is possible to evaluate Friedman’s main prediction, as well as his component arguments in light of the new evidence. Friedman argues that the term “labor” is used to elide the fundamental conflicts between unionized and non-unionized workers and between members of unions and labor unions as an institution (229). He also argues that labor unions work in two fundamental ways; first they limit the number of workers available for a particular industry or job, and thus raise the wages for unionized workers while increasing unemployment and