Koch Foundation and Economic Freedom

link here to site

This is link to the Koch Foundation website. You will notice that its stated mission is to " advance social progress and well being through the development. application and dissemination of the science of liberty". If you click on the News link on the left side it will take you to news about its deal with Florida State University to promote economics education and a couple of articles on the reaction by those who see it as a threat to academic freedom. Of course, they picked what they wanted to publish on the topic but that is not my point. You will find a link to a video that they developed on Economic Freedom and Well Being. The video conveys what they mean by the concept of economic freedom and its relationship to well being. In other words, this is what they mean by the "science of liberty" that is in its mission statement. You will see that it is hardly a science. It is simply propaganda.

The public is contributing to the propaganda of the Koch Foundation because the Koch contributions to the foundation, as well as other contributions from those who support its mission, are deductible from personal income taxes. Groups like the Tea Party get a lot of their information from the Koch Foundation and other foundations supported by tax deductible contributions, that play a similar role in organizing and training the populist groups that are responsible for much of our political dysfunction. Its hard to understand why we provide tax benefits to organizations that have propaganda as its primary mission. They define liberty as freedom from democratically elected governments which have the role of protecting the public interest. In their view, government regulations and laws which require corporations to behave in the public interest, are violations of freedom. When corporations do whatever they please, even if it leads to financial chaos and recession, it is an expression of their liberty and freedom. The actions taken by government to prevent future financial crises and to have corporations internalize the costs of pollution are viewed as threats to freedom in the US and that is why the video shows that the US is losing its status on their definition of economic freedom. It is intended to alarm the public and to encourage dissatisfaction with government.