Milton Friedman? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Economic policies are typically promulgated and enacted with high purposes and goals, yet sometimes the results are inadvertently deleterious. A prominent economist once said:
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
These words have been credited to U.S. economist Milton Friedman. I have not been able to find a citation, Would you please help determine if this attribution is accurate?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1975 Milton Friedman appeared on the television show “The Open Mind”, and he was interviewed by the host Richard Heffner. Friedman employed the quotation. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. We all know a famous road that is paved with good intentions.
The people who go around talking about their soft heart — I share their — I admire them for the softness of their heart, but unfortunately, it very often extends to their head as well, because the fact is that the programs that are labeled as being for the poor, for the needy, almost always have effects exactly the opposite of those which their well-intentioned sponsors intend them to have.
Friedman was referring to the proverb “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 2009 the book “After the Software Wars” by Keith Curtis printed the saying while crediting Friedman:2
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
—Milton Friedman
In 2011 the book “I Am John Galt” by Donald L. Luskin and Andrew Greta included the following passage. A footnote pointed to the 1975 interview:3
But we expect Akston would have been pleased when Friedman said in a 1975 interview, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
In 2024 a letter published in “The New York Times” contained the quotation:4
But the Department of Education’s wholesale and disgraceful failure of execution is just another sad reminder of the wisdom of Milton Friedman’s advice about government programs: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
In conclusion, Milton Friedman deserves credit for this quotation. He employed it during a television interview in 1975.
Image Notes: Series of dominoes from Tom Wilson at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Sarah Uthoff whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- Website: Richard Heffner’s Open Mind, Television episode title: Living Within Our Means, Interview of Milton Friedman by Richard Heffner, Video date: December 7, 1975, (Quotation starts at 1 minute 55 seconds of 28 minutes 38 seconds), Website description: Archive of the public television program Open Mind. (Accessed thirteen.org on March 20, 2024) link ↩︎
- 2009, After the Software Wars by Keith Curtis, Chapter: Challenges for Free Software: Metrics, Quote Page 215, Lulu.com, Raleigh-Durham, North, Carolina. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2011, I Am John Galt: Today’s Heroic Innovators Building the World and the Villainous Parasites Destroying It by Donald L. Luskin and Andrew Greta, Chapter 9: The Economist of Liberty, Quote Page 260, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2024 March 20, New York Times, Section: Letters – The High Cost of Weight-Loss Drugs, Letter title: FAFSA Chaos, Letter from: Kenneth A. Margolis of Chappaqua, New York, Quote Page A17, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎