The depraved left

Over at Pr. Quiggins left-wing blog hive, the commentariat are rejoicing at the death of Milton Friedman, whose economic research and views have offended many of the socialistas. So much for the misguided notion that the left is guided byre compassionate and sensitive.

Some of the nastier comments include:

1. brian Says:
   

   Friedman’s close links with the Pinochet regime,which he advised in the early years,makes him an accomplice to the crimes of Pinochet, as well as those of Thatcher.
   Pinochet is now under house arest in Santiago. What a shame there is no international Tribunal for trying economists,who i their own way inflict misery and pain on millions of innocent victims too
   Dante didn’t know about ecomomists but perhaps there is a special circle of hell for their really bad ones like Friedman !

melanie Says:
Well, it took the people of Chile and Britain a long time to recover from the policies perpetrated in his name. But I suppose he would say that was caused by something else.

The BBC replayed an interview the other day in which he dismissed the concern expressed by the interviewer about the misery inflicted by his ideas, in the hands of Thatcher, with a casual and very aggressively delivered assertion that there was no misery in the US (I don’t know whether it is true or not, but it wasn’t the point). He was no social democrat! And since when have good intentions ever absolved people from crimes against humanity?

And this amusing comment, whereby wanting to be right about something is labelled as a "vice" by a progressive soul. Hence Milton Friedman was not exactly their cup of tea:

James Farrell Says:

No, but was still a fanatic and egomaniac, which can get in the way of progress. Joan Robinson said of Keynes in one of her reminiscinces that he was free of the vice of wanting to have been right. Even in Keynes’s case this was was probably too generous; but one suspects that particular vice had Friedman well and truly in its grip.