David Friedman is the son of economists
Rose and
Milton Friedman. He graduated
magna cum laude from
Harvard University in 1965, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics. He later earned a master's in 1967, and a
PhD in 1971 in theoretical physics from the
University of Chicago. Despite his later career, he never took a class for credit in either economics or law. He was a professor of law at
Santa Clara University from 2005 to 2017, and a contributing editor for
Liberty magazine. He is currently a professor
emeritus. He is an
atheist. His son,
Patri Friedman, has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularly
seasteading.
The Machinery of Freedom In his book
The Machinery of Freedom (1973), Friedman sketched a form of
anarcho-capitalism where all goods and services including law itself can be produced by the
free market. Friedman advocates an incrementalist approach to achieve anarcho-capitalism by gradual
privatization of areas that government is involved in, ultimately privatizing the law itself. In the book, he states his opposition to violent
anarcho-capitalist revolution. He advocates a
consequentialist version of anarcho-capitalism, arguing for it on a
cost–benefit analysis of state versus no state. It is contrasted with the
natural-rights approach as propounded most notably by economist and libertarian theorist
Murray Rothbard. ==Non-academic interests==