THE CITY SHOULD HONOR FRIEDMAN

Suppose you lived in one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. In
fact, centuries hence, historians reflexively would name it along
with Athens, Paris, Rome and London for its contributions to the
arts, science, political economy, philosophy. Whom would you name as
your city's most influential citizen?

Nancy Pelosi? She does own at least a footnote in history as the
first female speaker of the House of Representatives. But her legacy
is yet to be made; whatever happens or doesn't happen on Capitol Hill
over the next two years may leave her contented with her name on an
office building annex.

Perhaps we should look to the arts, always more edifying than
legislation anyway. Michael Tilson Thomas, Jerry Garcia, Allen
Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac -- we'd better stop, the list being
inexhaustible. San Francisco's cultural impact, for better or worse,
is worldwide.

These ruminations come with the passing, last week, at 94, of Milton
Friedman, probably the world's most renowned economist. This most
influential of scholars adopted San Francisco as his home 30 years
ago at about the time he won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Though he took up residence on Russian Hill, his life as a public
intellectual was taken to heart, and his recommendations put into
practice, far and wide -- but not so much in The City. That is
because he stood philosophically athwart the "progressivism" that had
become a hallmark of this urban laboratory by the Bay.

Friedman's monetarism, embraced by the Federal Reserve Board, gave us
a quarter-century of low inflation. His eloquent championing of
free-market economics grew into the formal model on which many
formerly socialist countries -- including those of the old Eastern
Bloc, China and Vietnam -- base their economic policies.

His insight that economic and political freedoms are unbreakably
related inspired dissidents on every continent, and we rather wish
some of the Republicans who called him teacher understood why
opportunity-seeking immigrants should be placed in that context.
Likewise, without Milton Friedman, we would not have an all-volunteer
military, which is so high-tech and mentally invigorating that it is
beyond John Kerry's poor powers to comprehend.

Friedman, in the true San Francisco tradition, defied the
contradictions of political parties because of his consistent
libertarianism. He foresaw the failure of the drug war because, as a
massive statist mobilization, it created a hideously violent
underground economy. He was a friend to many in The City, even if The
City's regulation-minded political class couldn't befriend him.

Milton Friedman has died, his ideas universally vindicated. Could we
not have at least a street named for him? How does "Free Market Street" sound?