The Freedom Institute

For all those of you who believe in less government, check out The Freedom Institute

The Institute is a radical new initiative, designed to develop policies to make Ireland a better place for all of its citizens. Its membership is drawn from an array of backgrounds, and is rising on a monthly basis.

Our principles can be described in four key points, namely pro-freedom, pro-enterprise, less government and strengthened security.

The core activities of the Freedom Institute are simple. We publish regular reports to influence citizens to support our principles. Our staff are always available to discuss our position on any issue with the media. In addition, we propose to organise regular seminars throughout Ireland to spread our message.

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Am I missing something?

Most of the founding members seem to be [broken link removed] or recent graduates.

Seems to be typical stuff one would get in any student bar....my favourite is the article on the [broken link removed] - 200 words & 3 graphs. "Oh my gawd, I've an essay due to the Prof tomorrow, better write something. Life is, like, sooo unfair."

Sluice

Interesting site, they should, however, put a date on their essays. The 'smoking ban' (there against it) essay is well over a year and a half old.
ajapale

Hi Gang,

I've seen these lads in action - they are particularly active in the politics.ie website, and while they would no doubt disagree with me on the description, I think they are obnoxiously right-wing.. I think one of their main contributors is a chap called Richard Waghorne who has some ahem, interesting ideas

Still, to each their own and all that.

Cheers,

OpusnBill

Re: RE: the Freedom Institute

OpusnBill, you are far too nice for your own good.

ah gee thanks!!

Hi Purple,

I'm Scarle'!!

One thing in particular that annoys me about the FI and right wing think thanks in general, is that if you are of leftie persuasion, the assumption is you are clueless about economics - they don't have a monopoly on economic thinking you know!!!

Anyway, I think their basic premise is faulty - the market doesn't work all the time - so what do you do then?

Better work on being a nasty piece of work so!!!

Regards,

OpusnBill

freedom institute

Their ideas seem similar to US based think-tanks such as the Cato institute and the (American) Freedom Institute.

I'd agree with a certain amount of their agenda but I can't understand how can an organisation calling for "increased security" can simultaneously style itself as being in favour of "less government".

I think we need less government in the sense of less bureaucracy but more targeted investment in certain areas such as public transport. Any investment in public transport is probably anathema to these people.

Fare's fair

They do indeed have a strong and cogent policy on this issue:

[broken link removed]

The very valid point they make is that government tinkering has failed on this issue, and that the private sector should be brought in to sort out the mess

Fair fares

H'mmm... but it's questionable whether the rate of return on, say, rail transport would be sufficient to attract private sector operators.

How is it France and Italy have such superb rail transport without any talk of privatising it?

Because, I would suggest, they are prepared to spend the money and have done so over many decades.

Re: Fair fares

How is it France and Italy have such superb rail transport without any talk of privatising it?
Because, I would suggest, they are prepared to spend the money and have done so over many decades

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They are both former colonial powers with big populations in big cities. They also spent a good deal of the last 100 years raping their colonies and have high personal tax rates.
You can't compare them, or any other big mainland European country, to a small Island state that is 80 odd years old.

Fair fares

Quote:-
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They are both former colonial powers with big populations in big cities. They also spent a good deal of the last 100 years raping their colonies and have high personal tax rates.
You can't compare them, or any other big mainland European country, to a small Island state that is 80 odd years old.
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None of this is disputed. It's just when I see millions of € in grants going to highly dubious "sporting" ventures called equestrian centres and then I hear the Taoiseach saying there isn't enough money for any more LRT tracks, with the possible exception of a Metro to the airport, then I start to wonder about the priorities of some of our leaders.

I would have no problem in paying more income tax if we were getting a decent infrastructure but I seem to be in a minority on that one.