"The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit."
— Milton Friedman
The Most Important Single Central Fact
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
About this quote
This line appears in Free to Choose (1980), the popular companion to Friedman's PBS television series. Friedman used it to explain the mutually beneficial nature of voluntary exchange — a point he traced back to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations — and to distinguish free markets from zero-sum coercive transactions. The observation is foundational to his case against price controls, tariffs, and other interventions that prevent exchanges from taking place.
Source
Free to Choose, 1980
