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We believe that America is the world's most successful large-scale social experiment. Our cultural and institutional foundations led individuals toward productive rather than predatory pursuits. Our Founders vision fostered social cooperation through the rule of law, secure property rights, and the market process, not centralized command and control.
Our mission is to work with opinion leaders and decision makers to demonstrate how science and economics can effectively deal with contentious policy issues in ways consistent with a society of free and responsible individuals and America's founding ideals. Specifically, we provide constructive alternatives to the ever-present temptations to rely on centralized power when problems arise or new social goals are identified.
FREE conducts conferences, writes and edits books, and publishes opinion columns and journal articles. We use economics and scientific analysis to generate and explore innovative solutions to environmental problems. Our target audiences are important decision makers and opinion leaders. Currently, we are focused on federal judges, state supreme court justices, law professors, religious leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
While our conferences are explicitly pro-environment,
they explain why ecological values are not the only important ones.
We stress that trade-offs among competing values are inescapable.
We show why it is ethically and materially irresponsible to pretend
such choices can be avoided.
All of our programs share the following objectives:
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to describe how incentives and voluntary
cooperation can be used to protect and enhance environmental
values while fostering economic prosperity |
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to show how the application of economics and
science to public policy provides insights that advance the
public interest |
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to explain the importance of secure property
rights and economic freedom to the efficient and sensitive use
of environmental resources |
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to examine the dangers of legislating "risk-free"
laws and make explicit the linkages among science, risk analysis,
and economics |
HISTORY
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