David Friedman

David D. Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, legal scholar, physicist, and prominent anarcho-capitalist theorist. The son of Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, he holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago and spent decades teaching law and economics, notably serving as a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. Friedman is best known for his foundational 1973 book The Machinery of Freedom, in which he articulates a consequentialist defense of free-market anarchism, arguing that all goods and services—including law, protection, and the courts—can be efficiently provided by competitive private markets without a state. Beyond economics and legal theory, he has authored works on medieval history, law and economics, and science fiction, while routinely participating in public debates on libertarian theory, privatization, and ethics.