As part of my research for the Krone series "How to get rid of inflation", I visited the legendary economics professor Milton Friedman in the USA. He was relaxing at his vacation home in Vermont, weaving carpets, but that didn't stop him from answering my questions precisely and trenchantly. He was an ardent supporter of the market economy, but at the same time he saw through the tricks used by many governments to extract as much money as possible from their subjects.

His quintessence could currently be used again in Austria, where (verbal) austerity announcements are being made.

According to Friedman at the time, there are four ways in which the state can spend money.

First: You can spend your money on yourself, so you really watch what you do.
Secondly, you can spend your own money on someone else, where you pay attention to the value of a gift, for example, and of course to the price.
Thirdly, you can spend other people's money on yourself. I will have a very good lunch.
Fourthly, you can spend other people's money on other people. I'm no longer interested in how much I spend and what I get for the money. There's no stopping me.

That's how the state works, Milton Friedman explained, the only way is to entrust as little money as possible to those in power. How true!

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