Part 1 - Free or Equal Questions

1. Professor Milton Friedmans research led him to believe in the power of free markets and economic freedom
2. If the government gives everybody the same freedom to work . . . some will do better than others. The result will be
equality of opportunity, but not equality of outcome

3. After World War II, Hong Kong became a refugee camp with millions of extremely poor people. Hong Kong had no
prospects, no natural resources and little land that could be cultivated. But almost by accident it was given economic
freedom. . . . As a result, Hong Kong became an economic powerhouse

4. In the small Baltic country of Estonia, Prime Minister Mart Laar took his inspiration from Professor Friedmans book
Free To Choose. What three things did he do to imitate the Hong Kong model?
Zero Tarifs
Flat Tax
A minimum of regulation

5. Adam Smiths concept of the invisible hand was illustrated in the example of buying a tomato. The following 3 points
were made:

We vote with our pocketbooks
Every purchase sends a message
To make your life better, you have to you have to better the lives of others

6. Economists call the constant renewal of the economy creative destruction To increase our wealth and opportunities,
we have to stop doing old things in old ways and start doing innovative things in better ways

7. Swedish entrepreneurs are the oldest in the world. Young Swedes and entrepreneurial immigrants have moved from
Sweden to Britain and the U.S. because the rewards are much greater there, where taxes are lower.

8. The Founding Fathers had learned the lesson of history. The great danger to freedom is the concentration of power
especially in the hands of a government

9. As Milton Friedman said, 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

10. I would not approve of this method as it no longer is a representation of how well a student
understands the material. In re-distributing points from one student to another, we have not aided the intent
of the course which was for each student to gain a certain understanding of the material and concepts
presented. In this type of redistribution we have only made student grades look differently and have lost all
meaningful information from the grades.
I think this scenario does differ significantly from fair shares for all economically in a few ways. When
discussing the hard work and the payoff of that hard work we need to look at the detail of the grade and not just the
overall end result. If a student needs 90 points to get an A and an A is the highest grade that can be given, then any
points over 90 does not help that student in any way. In that circumstance, re-distributing the wealth in points
towards a poorer students grade does not impact the student with excess points.
I think this is a little closer to the economic scenario of higher taxes on the rich to subsidize the poor. Over a
certain level of income, additional income has a diminishing effect on the quality of life for that individual, they already
have an A, any extra credit really doesnt change things for them.
Another way I believe that this scenario differs from fair shares for all in economic terms is that, these grades
are based on individual ability and work. Often the most wealthy in our nation share their success with the individuals
who have done the work to make a successful enterprise but have not proportionally shred the economic benefits. With
the grades, no one has (or ethically should not have) hired someone else to perform the work for them so that they can
submit that work for a high grade.

Part 2 - Reflective Writing
Watching the video Free or Equal has helped me achieve two of the SLCC Learning Outcomes. This video did
help me to gain substantial knowledge on how free markets work and how closely economic freedom is tied to political
freedom. It was enlightening to see how Hong Kong specifically, grew from a group of very poor people to a prosperous
economy because of the lack of government regulations and economic involvement.
Watching this video also helped me to become civically engaged. In the past I have never felt like I had a very
good understanding of economics on a large scale and because of this, I have not felt like I could contribute the greater
conversation of what people can do to help those many people that live in poverty. I feel that after watching this video, I
understand a great deal more of the struggle of Freedom vs Equality in our sociio-economic environment. I feel that I
now have a greater understanding to discuss not only what exactly is wrong but to now discuss, in part, of why there is
something wrong and what can be done to help correct it.