Uncle Miltie

Economics by travelogue

Leave it to television to figure out how to give the dismal science some Hollywood glitter. Free to Choose, Nobel-prizewinning Economist Milton Friedman's current ten-part series on the Public Broadcasting Service, has turned economics into an eye-filling travelogue. As the sun slowly sets on beautiful Hong Kong harbor, the shirt-sleeved Friedman credits the crown colony's prosperity to the absence of government controls on business. In gaudy Las Vegas, Friedman expounds on the workings of the market system while standing next to a working roulette wheel. Later, thundering Niagara Falls represents Canada, where an asthmatic American housewife must go to obtain a medicine that Government regulation has banned in the good old U.S.A.

"The policy of the TV programs is not to persuade anybody," says Friedman, but to "make people think in a different way." The shows nonetheless provide the economist with an electronic platform where he can expound his beliefs in less government regulation and controlling the money supply as the key to halting inflation. Each program consists of half an hour of economics-cww-travelogue, followed by another half-hour discussion among Friedman, adversaries like Socialist Michael Harrington or National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Joan Claybrook and supporters like U.C.L.A. Economist Thomas Sowell.

According to Robert Chitester, president of Erie, Pa., station WQLN, who is responsible for television's newest Uncle Miltie, the show's reception has been "encouraging." But in New York Free to Choose is getting barely 2% of the audience because its 5 p.m. Sunday time slot puts it up against prime sports viewing hours. Friedman in recent weeks has been no match for the Wide World of Sports.

The public reaction to the show, nonetheless, has been good. Friedman says he has received a stream of letters, "on the whole about 90% favorable." In Britain, where the show is also being aired, one of the biggest fans is Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Last week a cartoon in Punch showed the P.M. and her Secretary of State for Industry, Sir Keith Joseph, bowing reverently before a TV set tuned in to Friedman.

Like a good card-carrying capitalist, Friedman has turned the television series into a cottage industry. He and his wife Rose have written a book to go along with the programs. It is also entitled Free to Choose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; $9.95) and amplifies his thoughts on the relationship between political and economic freedom.

About 107,000 copies of the book have been sold so far, and after four weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, it is now in second place. The TV program has also spawned a 16-mm film of the series at $6,200 and video cassettes at $4,800 for the economics student who might wish to see an instant replay of the causes for the Great Depression. There are also 15 video-taped lectures called "Milton Friedman Speaks" available at $500 a show or $7,000 for the lot. With the expected profits, Friedman should be able to pay for a return trip to all those beautiful places in the series.

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