Some luminaries are way ahead of their time. Economist Milton Friedman, who died 20 years ago and was a Nobel laureate 50 years ago, was not only ahead of his time--but also of our time.

Friedman lived to be 94, and witnessed during his lifetime some of the most dramatic shifts in U.S. governmental usurpation of power, money and control. Those observations produced a great anthology of thoughts and writings that reconcile the failings of big government to the simplest truths.

"The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests," he said during an interview with Phil Donahue. "The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus."

Friedman had a talent for adroitly breaking situations down to core basics, where analysis didn't require a masterful understanding or processing of complicated economic theories.

His matrix of the four categories of spending is a classic example.

1. You spend your own money on yourself. This kind of spending results in the most scrutiny of cost and the greatest pursuit of value.

2. You spend your own money on somebody else. In this situation, cost is minimized or controlled budgetarily, independent of value (such as a birthday gift).

3. You spend someone else's money on yourself. Here, the incentive is almost always on maximizing value, regardless of........

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