What a great year this has been for the Mises Institute! New books, productive conferences, more students than ever, all to advance the cause of economic freedom in academia and public life.
Has it made a difference? Yes! There was a time, some years ago, when one mention of Mises or Rothbard in the popular press or an academic journal caused us to celebrate. Now it is a daily event. There was a time when we were dazzled when a single Austrian economist got a university position. Now, thanks to our Mises University and Fellowship programs, not to speak of our giant website, they are teaching all over the world.
Socialist and Keynesian ideology has not disappeared; indeed, they’ve strengthened. Liberty and property are not secure. The dollar isn’t sound. The lefty media, politicians, and Hollywood executives are promoting their social agenda like never before.
That only means that our work is not done. We know that the ideals of liberty require a culture-wide commitment. So we work to provide it.
We work to make sure every young person who is looking for the truth about socialism or banking or private property or war can find books, articles, and digital programming that explain these concepts, not to mention our in-person teaching.
We work hard to hold seminars and conferences on Austrian economics, private property, state propaganda, capitalism, and morality.
We work to distribute books, videos, and articles on these important ideas to students and everyone around the world.
We work to make you proud to be a supporter of the Mises Institute.
What we don’t do is play the lobbying or political game.
The inspiration for all we do comes from the confidence that supporters like you put in us, and from the example of freedom fighters like Mises and Rothbard. They spoke boldly and truthfully, and when they were told to be silent, they refused. They paid a professional price, of course; neither ever held an appropriate position.
Note what they did not do: hold cocktail parties for Fed bureaucrats, lobby for new government programs, seek grants from the Department of This and That. Government is not what they were about. It is not what we are about.
Government could not fix the problems of their time. Bernie and friends certainly can’t fix ours.
Murray Rothbard always looked to the new generation as the source of intellectual fire. They are prepared to look at the world in a new way. The impulse toward freedom — implanted in their hearts — led them to be open to libertarian ideas, and to be critical of the apparatus of statism into which they are born.
I met many of these students during our Mises University this year. They gave me great hope.
For this generation of students, the decisive events involve not only socialism, war, and a failing dollar on the Left, but the political hypocrisy on the DC right. They get the language of freedom but the reality of statism with crisis as a pretext.
It’s always something. Right now, it’s climate change. And anticapitalism. These students are told they will all die within seven years. They are to sell their souls, give up all rights, to fix this “problem.”
They’re saying that the only free, prosperous, and just economic system is evil!
How can we stop the insanity? By encouraging ever more people to think clearly and understand how freedom works. This is never more important than in a crisis.
To discover the ideas of freedom is life changing for our students.
Our long experience suggests that students and others who first encounter the Mises Institute are drawn in by curiosity and then stay to learn because of the explanatory power of our ideas, and the vision of a prosperous, peaceful world.
We offer students what state-funded colleges and universities can’t or won’t. We offer the truth about economics, government, central banking, history, and war.
The Mises Institute shares the vision that you and I believe in: an economy unencumbered by government controls, a society permitted to thrive in freedom, a money untainted by central banking, scholars and students who appreciate the workings of liberty, and everyone educated in the truths of freedom.
We believe that this vision can be the future, for ourselves and our descendants. The message of free markets, sound money, peace, and libertarian scholarship is getting a hearing as never before.
The Mises Institute’s message has not changed since our founding in 1982.
No wonder more people are receptive to our ideas. Smart young people in particular tend to oppose the tired nostrums of state control.
Now is the time to prepare for the exciting days to come. Please join us as we forge ahead, fight for truth, and teach tomorrow’s intellectual leaders. Help us with your most generous contribution for 2020 and beyond.
