Loudoun County, Virginia to honor Milton Friedman

The Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors will on Tuesday, December 19 honor the life and works of free-market economist Milton Friedman by naming his birthday, all subsequent anniversaries, as “Milton Friedman Day” in the county.

“Loudoun County owes its success to the global economy that Friedman helped create,” said Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, sponsor of the resolution. “Without Friedman’s lifelong advocacy of greater individual freedom we would never know the quality of life we enjoy in both Loudoun County and United States.”

The Resolution of Recognition names July 31, 2007 and every July 31 afterwards, as “Milton Friedman Day” in the county. An integral hub of global business, Loudoun is home to Dulles International Airport and companies such as AOL, all of whom have benefited greatly from the free trade economic policies he pioneered.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher credited Friedman for helping create the policies that led to dramatic economic revivals in both nations. His work in then-impoverished Chile created the most stable and fastest-growing economy on the South American continent and led to the replacement of the Pinochet regime by a free democracy. Even today, Friedman’s policies continue to be adopted and spur economic growth and greater freedom in nations such as Sweden.

Friedman served as an economic advisor to both Reagan and Thatcher, as well as Presidents Ford and Nixon. He was instrumental in the abolishment of the military draft and in his lifetime was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, the National Medal of Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Nobel Prize in Economics.

In addition to his work as a scholar, Friedman authored twelve books, was a columnist for Newsweek and host of the PBS program “Free To Choose.”

[b]A nice contrast with Karl Marx day in Arlington County, VA.[/b]

tell me about it. I am a political refugee from Arlington -- now living in Loudoun. Unfortunately, many of the lefties of have followed me here. The Eastern rim has a distinctly left-leaning Fairfax kind of feeling to it.

There were some positive signs in Loudoun in the last election cycle.

its true that the eastern part of Loud. Co is trending blue, but what is NOT HELPFUL AT ALL is when conservative candidates are not part of the solution to the region's traffic nightmare.

IIRC, the state senators from the Nova area tried to impose a sales tax just in the region to improve roads and such, and were prevented from doing so by the state assembly

fairfax and loudoun have to provide the majority of the income for Richmond, and those people down there won't give more money for the roads, won't even let nova tax itself (which is ridiculous, considering nova already is taxed enough to pay for better roads........but lets assume that nova has to pay twice for the improvements, even then Richmond refuses to allow nova to solve its problem)

"it's true that the eastern part of Loud. Co is trending blue, but what is NOT HELPFUL AT ALL is when conservative candidates are not part of the solution to the region's traffic nightmare."

I completely agree. Here's the problem Virginia has.

The downstate GOP does not give a hoot about NOVA. They also don't care about GOP loses in NOVA because they believe they can hold a majority in the legislature with the down state seats alone.

That's really bad news because -- down state, there is no incentive, political or economic, to send money back to NOVA. Every dime sent back here from Richmond comes from money that the downstaters are spending in their districts keeping their voters happy. And, other than in the tidewater area, no one else is sitting in traffic -- and no one else in the state cares. NOVA gets back about 30 cents for every back it sends south, and no one wants to change that -- except us.

The Virginia GOP is often thought of as being just plain stupid for not trying to regain Fairfax or northern Virginia. The truth is, they don't care. They control the legislature and take the money without it -- so why invest. That's the view -- often hidden behind some BS anti-tax slogan.

There is so much money in the budget is it sickening. The problem is, it is not spent on core services -- education, transportation, and infrastructure. It is now spent on the expanding nanny state in Virginia, and wasted on pet projects.

With house prices now down in parts of Loudoun over 215K from the top of the market -- get ready for the next political revolt on the horizon in 12-18 months. Massive tax increases, combined with dropping property values. That's going to be real popular.

When the state coffers dry-up from the real estate bust -- look for even less money to come back north from Richmond -- meaning even greater local property tax increases.

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