Adam Smith Benevolent Fund Recent Loans

The Moorfield Storey Institute also manages the Adam Smith Benevolent Fund through which we make microloans to developing regions to encourage entrepreneurship and economic development. We believe that development does more to solve the problems of the world than charity ever could. A portion of all sales through our book site Fr33minds.com goes into this fund and is loaned out. All loans are revolving so that the fund grows with time. We believe benevolence and economic freedom go hand in hand. Here are are the latest loans we have made. If you wish to donate to the Fund through the Institute, you can do so here.



The first loan is to Norris of Barranquilla, Colombia. Norris is 51 and lives with her husband and two children, 15 and 17. Her grocery store sells an array of home products, food, canned items and meals. She started her business 20 years ago in an area where there were few stores. She will use the loan to expand inventory.

Leonardo is 21 and married with one son. He lives in El Sauce, Nicaragua and runs a small a small cafe outside his home. He sells juices, soft drinks, pastries such as cachos, tortas de piña, picos, dedos, etc.), sopa de leche (a traditional soup) and baked goods. He spends about 10 hours a day at his business offering his product to regular customers and on order. His hope is to expand working capital by investing in more pastries and items to sell to his customers.

Juana is 54, married with five children, one of whom still lives with her. She operates a general store in Bogu, Philippines, where she sells sugar, coffee, canned goods and noodles. She has been in business for 10 year and wants to expand her selection. Due to the impact of Super Typhoon Haiyan on the country we have decided to make additional loans in the Philippines, though the typhoon damage may make it harder for recipients to repay the loans.

Mrs. Maingerel, 31 years old, lives with her husband, daughter and son in a traditional Mongolian ger (portable felt dwelling) on a plot of land in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She has been selling phone accessories by renting a stall at a trade center since 2012.

Her husband, together with three other people, decorate house interiors. Their daughter and son go to kindergarten. She is requesting a loan to buy phone accessories at wholesale prices, so that she can continue to run her business without worrying about inventory shortage.

Nenita is a 42 years old and lives in P-1 Upper Langcangan.

In order to help the family, she sells plastic wares. She also operates a sari-sari store. She wants to obtain financial assistance to purchase additional inventories of plastic wares. Due to the impact of Super Typhoon Haiyan on the country we have decided to make additional loans in the Philippines, though the typhoon damage may make it harder for recipients to repay the loans.

The Storey Institute is a registered 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization that promotes social tolerance, depoliticized markets, trade and a peaceful foreign policy. It sells books through Fr33minds.com to help cover expenses, and produces books through its publishing arm, Cobden Press. All donations are tax deductible.  

The Oxygen of Liberty

Tonight we are gathered here for something that, in a rational world, wouldn’t be very important—politics. Why do I say it is really not all that important?

If I were to ask you to sit down and write down the five most important things in your life, I can assure you that politics would not be one of them. What really is important?

Perhaps it’s a walk on the beach with the person you love most in this world; or a son’s graduation, the birth of a grandchild, the joy of wonderful music, the discovery of new places, the quest for knowledge, finding a flower that you have never seen before, the satisfaction of productive work, or the thrill of scientific discovery.

The lists we would make would vary from person to person. But I think I’m on safe ground when I say that none of us would list a political campaign.

Most people instinctively dislike politics—and probably with good reason. What we see when look at it is back room deals, low ethics, big promises but poor delivery, lies, lies, lies and then to cover them up, usually more lies. The quality of people attracted to such ventures is not very high. There seems to be a direct inverse relationship between electability and decency.

When we think about those things in our lives that are important we realize that there is one crucial ingredient that makes all of them possible. It doesn’t matter what you value because the inescapable nature of man is such that liberty is absolutely necessary.

A Return to Liberalism

Liberalism, as originally  and properly understood, is the historic advocate of individual freedom. It has promoted the rule of law and private property, with the free exchange of goods and ideas. Its opposition to censorsh

The entire liberal philosophy revolves around the primacy of the rights of the individual. As two philosophers put it: “Rights are the language through which liberalism is spoken” (Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl, Liberalism Defended).

Thomas Jefferson put this liberal ideal into one succinct paragraph in his magnificent Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Governed . . . .”

Liberalism turned the prevailing doctrines of human rights and politics upside down. For centuries it was assumed that man lived for the sake of the state; that what rights he possessed were gifts, given to him by his king or government. Li berals argued that the opposite was true. People possess rights first, and governments receive their sanction from the people. The government is not the giver of rights to the people but the people are the source for the legitimacy of the government.

Collective rights: winning the battle, losing the war.

Because many libertarians came to their philosophy from the Right they often bring with them a style of discussion that betrays their roots. While their position may be correct philosophically  the way in which they express themselves conveys meanings they may not intend, alienating the people they are hoping to address.

Libertarians believe in individual rights. I have no problem with that. Rights reside entirely with the individual. There is no such thing as collective rights, just the rights of the individual. So it would seem logical for a libertarian to shun terms like “woman’s rights” or “gay rights” or “minority rights,” etc.

We should be clear that people use the term “rights” in two different ways, and without clarifying which one is using can lead to unnecessary confusion. When a libertarian says that someone has “rights” they are referring to the ideal situation, not to the actual situation. It is to the libertarian vision of individual rights that they are referring.

A Libertarian Look at Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was everything people have said about him—and yet nothing like the man they claimed he was. He was saint and sinner, a miracle for the nation, and just a man, flaws and all.

I was in line at McDonalds in Cresta, a northern suburb of Johannesburg, when suddenly the order clerk glazed over and stopped paying any attention to my order or me. I kept trying to finish the order with no response. My partner whispered in my ear: “Mandela just walked in.”

I turned to my left and, sure enough, there was Madiba, shuffling toward the back where his grandchild was celebrating a birthday. We got our food and sat down, watching Mandela and the children in the back of the restaurant. People stopped eating to stare. The mostly white crowd had cell phones out telling everyone they knew that they were in the presence of Mandela.

Dumpster Diving and Libertarianism

The Left-of-center website, Demos, has a somewhat dishonest attack on libertarianism by a Mr. Matt Bruenig. Bruenig is happy to announce that a libertarian from the Cato Institute has agreed to discuss the nature of libertarianism with him. He then pulls one of the more dishonest stunts that one can pull in a debate or discussion—he set up an extreme, minority position as if it is the mainstream and then demanded his opponent justify it.

This is similar to conflating left progressives with the Communist Party USA. It was a shameful stunt when pulled by McCarthyites, Birchers and others on the extreme Right and it is just as shameful when pulled by left progressives, such as Mr. Bruenig.

Bruenig demands that his Cato discussant defend the antics of Han-Hermann Hoppe, who is absurdly described as “a very prominent libertarian academic.” In truth, Mr. Hoppe is hardly “prominent,” though he and his small band of followers would rush to agree with Bruenig—which makes Bruenig the one keeping odd company.

Bruenig notes Hoppe’s affiliation with the paleolibertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute—formed by a former staffer from the Conservative Book Club, well after Mises died. Now, if you were to take the budgets of the various libertarian-oriented think tanks and combine them together, you would probably find that this organization represents less than 1% of libertarian funding of ideas in any one year.

Ten Commandments for Libertarians

It was once said: “I have met the enemy and he is us.”

Truer words were never said.

I think the libertarian vision is a noble one. It respects people. It sees each individual as an end in themselves and not the means to the ends of others.

With any such set of ideas there is the message and there is the messenger. Rationally it behooves us to keep the two separate. In reality though people often judge the message by the messenger.

And the libertarian movement worldwide has some really decent, hardworking, caring individuals at it’s helm. It also has some kooks, nuts, weirdos, cultists and certifiable lunatics out there as well. In other words it’s pretty much like the rest of the world.

Libertarianism is a set of ideas for sure. It is also a collection of people. Ideas don’t exist outside of people. Ideas require on people for their existence. Ideas only reside in the mind. They may correspond with things we see in reality but they themselves are a mental construct. To separate the message from the messenger becomes very difficult.

This movement we have chosen is filled with unique individuals. All of whom pretty much assert that they want to see libertarian ideas spread around the world and adopted. They mostly claim to be inspired by high ideals. Yet often they commit some deadly sins when it comes to promoting the fundamentals of liberty.