Here’s one of the keystones to my high school curriculum. It’s The Incredible Bread Machine, a video by Karl Keating, Susan Love Brown, Patrea Post and Stuart Smith — inspired by Richard Grant’s epic poem of the same name. (An abbreviated rendition of the poem starts at 30:34 into the film — we would recite parts of the poem during graduation ceremonies, and for some reason I was chosen to portray The Lawyer.)

Here are some memorable quotes from the film:

• I shouldn’t be able to force you to finance something you don’t believe in — but if I don’t have that right, why is it legally/morally right for the government to have it?
• No one gets it if there ain’t none
• You don’t solve problems by violating people’s rights
• If the government didn’t have favors to sell, the consumer would be king
• Governments don’t produce anything, people produce things

During the follow-up, Milton Friedman lets loose some great insights, too:

• Social Security is presented as if it were an insurance scheme… what it really is is a combination of a very bad tax system with a very bad welfare program
• The law which would have the greatest value in curbing monopoly and promoting competition would be one which abolishes tariffs and enact free trade
• It’s a mystery how it’s better to be unemployed at $2.40 an hour, than being employed at $2.00 an hour

There are still some voices in the wilderness that understand what Mr. Friedman was trying to convey, but none as clearly nor as loudly as he did.