Ah-nold appeared in the nineties remake of Friedman’s Free to Choose tv series. He claims that he was instantly converted to free market ideas from them on. Though, looking at his work in California he certainly seems to have forgotten all those ideas.
I was wondering if he would warm better to Austrian economics – given that he is an Austrian after all. Someone should send him a copy of Mises’ Human Action.
It’s here and loads up as a video automatically: http://www.ideachannel.tv/
How kind of you to be so thoughtful of our dear Governator, but I think you mistake his declared ideals for his internal drives. ANY person who seeks public office has ‘power’ issues as far as I am concerned.
Another mis-speak of Arnie’s was that he hated socialism which is why he left Austria in the first place. If that is true, why is he so hell bent on making medical ‘care’ available to all of Californians? And most likely at the point of a pen too (aka law - you WILL have this).
But I’m not one to dissuade your dreams, however I think you would have a better chance of him reading something shorter and ‘lighter’ like Economics in One Lesson.
According to Milton Friedman, Arnold is fascinated by praxeology…
Your post reminded me of a blog entry I once read, although I share Karen De Coster’s scepticism on this point:
http://www.karendecoster.com/blog/archives/000384.html#000384
I’d love to hear him just say “praxeology.” I can imagine it now…It’s sort of like how he pronounces our state: “Cally-fourneeya.”
Joking aside, as has been said, Governor Schwarzenegger simply doesn’t have the political record of an Austrian (economically speaking). Perhaps he admires the free market in some high-minded, intellectual way, but when it comes to translating that into economic and political freedom in California, he seems much more like someone who might admire FDR.
I think we know what happened then. At that dinner with Milton Friedman, Friedman probably went on and on about vouchers, public roads, anti-trust, monetarism and negative income tax and how the Austrian School pales in comparison to Chicago School stuff. No Murray Rothbards or Walter Blocks around to refute this, he accepted it – pushing the Austrian School out of his mind. Too bad.