I had the privilege last week of attending “Atlas Experience 2010—Beating Back Socialism in the U.S. and Abroad.” The event is an annual program of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and was held in the Miami, Florida area this year.
Atlas, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., is “instrumental in creating and nurturing an international network of free-market public policy institutes; free market university-based academic centers and a cadre of individuals committed to achieving a free society.”
The Atlas Experience included around 200 participants from about thirty countries throughout the world. The program was excellent, with speakers who addressed, among other topics, the lessons of Greece’s problems, the experience of Canadian Health Care, the efforts of Cuba and Venezuela to spread socialism in Latin America, and the broad challenge facing freedom in the U.S.
Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Atlas’s Vice President of International Programs and General Director of the Atlas Global initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity, who is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and director of Cato University, spoke on the history of liberty. He discussed the ancient roots of liberty, and the struggle through the present in realizing this ideal. “Liberty as an achievement” is a powerful concept, because it expresses the need to struggle to achieve and maintain liberty.
Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Studies at Reason Foundation, spoke on privatizing and improving aviation security. See his article, “Get the Government Out of Airport Screening,” Reason.com, April 13, 2010.
Fisher Memorial Award Dinner
John A. Allison IV, the retired chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BB&T Corporation, spoke about his leadership of the bank, his experience with regulators, and his philosophy of life. Mr. Allison is unusual among corporate leaders in at least two respects. First, he is a libertarian. Second, he possesses the very traits the world desperately needs in its leaders: he is decent, principled, and ethical.
Atlas presented the 2010 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award (honoring Atlas’s founder) to Cato Institute for Dr. James Tooley’s The Beautiful Tree (2009). Dr. Tooley spoke about his book, which concerns the success of parent-funded, private schools for the poor in India, Africa, and China. For information, see the video or listen to the podcast of the Cato Institute’s April 15, 2009 Book Forum.
Learning From the Experience of the U.S.
The best aspect of the event, for me, was the opportunity to meet people from around the world, from counties such as Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Mozambique, China (Hong Kong), Turkey, Belgium, France, Slovenia, and Ukraine. I found all of these individuals to be dedicated, noble, and inspiring in their commitment to liberty.
The people I met still look to the U.S. as a beacon of freedom. This is encouraging, because it means the U.S. still projects the ideals on which it was founded. The country, however, is slipping fast. The Index of Economic Freedom, created by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, currently ranks the U.S. as number 8. The U.S. government is increasingly threatening our freedom and prosperity with its growth in size and scope, its imposition of socialism, bailouts, protectionism, and excessive regulation, and its engagement in foolish military adventures.
Advocates of freedom around the world can find great inspiration and sound principles in the founding and history of the U.S. They also would be wise to learn from the country’s mistakes and current decline.
Democracy itself does not foster liberty. Liberty requires constitutional limitations on the power and scope of government, as well as a political culture that checks government abuse. The U.S. has lost sight of the restraints in its Constitution, and its political culture has degenerated, to the detriment of the country and its diminishment as a model for the world.
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Advocates of freedom help not only their own countries, but also all nations, as they lead by example. Their achievements also foster the international competition that encourages governments to curb their own power. Atlas and its network are an admirable force for liberty.
