Whatever problems, risks, or challenges we face, one indisputable fact does not change: There has never been a better place or time to be alive than the United States right now. And this moment was created by the great minds who established the classical liberal tradition. By the great men and women who built the conditions for human flourishing on the foundation of these ideas, inaugurating limited constitutional government in America. By the great innovators who seized upon these conditions to create our wondrous, modern world. And by the great heroes who have defended our liberty—both physically and intellectually—for the past two and a half centuries.
t a recent dinner, two questions were posed to the table. What do we owe to the past? And what do we owe to the future? The answers seem clear. To previous generations we have a debt of gratitude and respect. To future generations we have a duty.
Each generation has benefited more than the last from their vision, their efforts, and their persistence. We are today the greatest beneficiaries yet, and as such we are the heirs to their legacy and their duty. It’s now our job to bequeath a free country and world to those who come next so that they can pick up the baton and take our amazing world to still greater heights.
Humans often can’t resist making things more complicated than they need to be, but the ingredients necessary for flourishing are straightforward: freedom and openness; expanding and sustaining peace; and keeping government out of the way.
Yet today, illiberal forces on both the left and right are threatening each of these crucial elements, with the funneling of trillions of taxpayer dollars into wasteful and feckless industrial policies, government censorship of critics on social media, frantic calls to shut down the movement of people and trade, and the eagerness of some to lurch into yet more foreign wars.
But with rigorous research, thoughtful analysis, principled engagement, and continuous innovation, Cato is taking on all of these threats. And by calling to mind the people whose vision built the modern world, as well as the people who are counting on us to keep it going, we remember that the principles and policies of liberty are not abstractions—for they determine what kind of lives will be lived by millions of human beings.
Scott Lincicome and his team launched an innovative project last year to communicate the benefits of globalization to a broad national and international audience. In this issue, you’ll find a data-driven, clear-eyed defense of globalization and the free movement of capital, goods, and ideas across national and political borders. It encapsulates the arguments they’ve been making, counteracting and undermining those clamoring for populist, protectionist, and nationalist policies that would damage the US economy and hurt the very people they are intended to help.
Cato has also been making a comprehensive case for realism and restraint in US foreign affairs. At the time of the Iraq war, Justin Logan and his colleagues in our foreign policy department were a lonely voice in the nation’s capital against the war. Now they are joined by a large chorus admitting the war was a grievous mistake. Through decades of diligent work—unwavering in the face of relentless criticism—Cato today leads a growing consensus against continual military intervention and US policing of the globe.
In deciding what kind of opportunities your children and grandchildren will have—and what kind of lives they will live—I invite you to join us in this important mission. Your involvement makes a difference, whether through subscribing to receive the latest digital version of Free Society or other Cato newsletters, engaging with our resources, attending our events, sharing our content and ideas throughout your networks, or providing the financial support that makes everything we do possible.
Thank you for supporting Free Society and the Cato Institute. Together, we will build a freer, more prosperous future for generations to come.
Peter Goettler
President and CEO
