ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the views of Karl Marx and Milton Friedman. Marx believed that government deregulation leads to catastrophies such as the 2008 Wall Street collapse. The concept of 'free markets' creates gaps between rich and poor. Capitalism creates the conditions for even more horrendous economic collapses, and for wars and climate change. Economists believed that markets and free trade would magically bring freedom and prosperity, and believed that deep and long capitalist crises were impossible. Friedman's view is that Marxism has proved itself a recipe for brutal authoritarianism and economic collapse, as seen in the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Eastern Europe under Communism. His premises include markets ensure freedom and efficiency; economic actors are rational; market crises are self-correcting; and government is coercive and inefficient, and it is the problem, not the solution.
