One must distinguish the difference between being pro-free enterprise and being pro-business

They are two very different things

The above headline is a slight modification of a quote from the attached Milton Friedman video below.

Boy is Friedman right. Some of the greatest enemies of free enterprise, the free exchange of goods and services, are the cronies in the business sector. Many business people are not interested in competing on a level playing field. For them the freedom they and their firm give up by partnering with the government in a myriad of forms, usually in forms that restrict competition, is far worth it.

If the government is large enough to hand out favors it will hand out favors. If there are favors to be had unscrupulous business people (and other private interests) will find ways to obtain these favors. This is just human nature.

Many people of different political stripes recognize this. People understand why companies have lobbyists in Washington. It isn’t to create to create a more competitive environment. The lobbyists are there instead, mostly, to extract favors from the government which is funded by you and me.

Even still, many people misunderstand the cure for this cronyism as Professor Friedman points out when he discusses the case made by Jane Fonda the week before at the same university he is addressing. Friedman acknowledges that Fonda (according to a questioner from the audience) was right to point out the immense power of corporations to influence government. She is right in diagnosing the problem he says, but she misunderstands the cure because Ms. Fonda he presumes (fairly and accurately) believes that the solution is to further embolden the government, so that the government can then “rein in” wayward corporations.

What Fonda fails to understand is that by expanding the scope of government even more she further emboldens the cronies and the crony capitalist system.