How Milton Friedman Made Me Buy A New TV

PBS first aired Milton Friedman’s 10-part “Free to Choose” series in 1980. At that time we only had an old TV set that didn’t receive UHF, and so we couldn’t watch the show at home. But National Airport had recently installed some new chairs in one part of its lobby, each of which had a small TV mounted next to it. If you put a few coins in the pay box, you could watch what you wanted.

So my wife and I drove down to National Airport, figuring we’d catch the first episode there. Well, the TV did receive UHF, but the reception was terrible! (The ambiance wasn’t very good either.)

And that’s why we bought a new, UHF-capable TV set, in time to watch the next episode of “Free to Choose” at home.

As for “Capitalism and Freedom”, my favorite Friedman book, I always think of it as “Capitalism and Friedman”.