Ana Gázquez Cano!
NIU: 1496671!
Practical task on the disagreement between economists on economic policy and the role
of the state.!
1. Which are the subjects of the debate between these economists?
This debate’s focus is on the degree in which the State should intervene and the failure of
Socialism in Eastern Europe.!
Friedman affirms that East Europeans must understand that wealth is not created through
Governments. The only way, according to him, to create it is through economic freedom.
On the other hand, Bowles defends the intervention of the state to ensure equality among
individuals.!
2. Which are the main disagreements between them and which do you think is the
reason for these disagreements?
Both economies discuss about which have been the results of central-planning
economies in different countries and how wealth is distributed among individuals.
Friedman defends in that sense that the lesser a government intervenes, the better.
Samuel Bowels, instead, defends that the State should intervene.!
This debate is illustrated through several situations such as wealth redistribution, in which
Bowles states that poor people do not have home because of the fact that they are poor
and not because of rent control. Friedman, for instance, explains that due to rent control
the number of people that does not have home has increased.!
3. According to your view, who do you think is making more convincing arguments?
Why?
I agree with Friedman. Bowles defends the fact that firms create imbalances by taking
advantage of situations and create disadvantages for other people. And he illustrates so
through several countries such as Korea or Japan, which as Friedman says, have a
standard living below The US. !
4. Make an Internet search on both authors and write with your own words a 4 lines
bio of each of them.
Friedman: US’ economist that started working as a professor at Chicago’s University in
1948 considered to be one of the most important monetarists economists. He defends
the idea that there is a relationship between the amount of money that circulates in an
economy and the levels of inflation.!
Bowles: American economist and professor at the University of Massachusetts that
defends that “free markets and inequality maximize efficiency” and that those countries
that are more egalitarian have progressed much more than those that are less egalitarian.