John Stossel was fresh out of Princeton University in the early 1970s when he took a job as a consumer affairs reporter at a network affiliate in Oregon. He was armed with unwavering confidence in the Great Society and a belief that central planners knew all the answers.

When Mr. Stossel began exposing fraudulent practices of small business owners on his nightly broadcasts, he thought state legislators would see his reports and take care of things by passing more regulations. But then a funny thing happened.

“I discovered a guy named Milton Friedman,” Mr. Stossel said yesterday at a Manhattan Institute tribute to the late economist at the University Club.

Friedman, who was still five years away from winning his Nobel Prize, nevertheless made Mr. Stossel look at how the world works in a much different way.

“I was mugged by reality,” he said. “I came to realize that the more you regulate things, the more paper you push around. And the more public sector jobs you create for people to sit on their duffs.”

The crowd, gathered in honor of Milton Friedman Day, applauded when Mr. Stossel recalled Friedman telling him that “price gougers are heroes.”

Mr. Stossel’s address, “The Power of Ideas,” centered around a documentary he made eight years ago, “Is America Number One?” which showed how Hong Kong transformed itself to a world-class city from a poverty-ridden pit in just 20 years. The reason? This little piece of the Chinese coastline was an example of just the type of “benevolent neglect” Friedman advocated.

The British built basic infrastructure like roads, bridges, and schools. But beyond that, they left the place alone. “There was no OSHA or cumbersome trade laws in Hong Kong,” Mr. Stossel said. “Regulations, things that are designed to protect people, usually end up stifling any real progress. One of Milton Friedman’s favorite insights was that there is nothing that does so much harm as good intentions.”

Friedman, interviewed in the documentary, said the key ingredient to the success of Hong Kong was freedom. Mr. Stossel said Hong Kong’s success story is important because people often confuse Miltonian freedom with democracy, yet the latter never existed in Hong Kong.

Mr. Stossel said Friedman was viewed as an optimist. Indeed, he was pleased with the end of military conscription. But near the end of his life, his optimism had been tempered by what he saw as complacency in the Western world. “Milton always pointed out that free societies are unstable, but that fact doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep fighting for them,” Mr. Stossel said. “We all need to keep fighting Milton’s fight.”