Posted on 09/29/2014 11:33:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In 2007, when the Charles Koch Foundation considered giving millions of dollars to Florida State University’s economics department, the offer came with strings attached.
First, the curriculum it funded must align with the libertarian, deregulatory economic philosophy of Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and Republican political bankroller.
Second, the Charles Koch Foundation would at least partially control which faculty members Florida State University hired.
And third, Bruce Benson, a prominent libertarian economic theorist and Florida State University economics department chairman, must stay on another three years as department chairman—even though he told his wife he’d step down in 2009 after a single three-year term.
The Charles Koch Foundation expressed a willingness to give Florida State an extra $105,000 to keep Benson—a self-described “libertarian anarchist” who asserts that every government function he’s studied “can be, has been, or is being produced better by the private sector”—in place.
“As we all know, there are no free lunches. Everything comes with costs,” Benson at the time wrote to economics department colleagues in an internal memorandum. “They want to expose students to what they believe are vital concepts about the benefits of the market and the dangers of government failure, and they want to support and mentor students who share their views. Therefore, they are trying to convince us to hire faculty who will provide that exposure and mentoring.”
Benson concluded, “If we are not willing to hire such faculty, they are not willing to fund us.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Headline smells like BS.
How laughable, like lefties NEVER do this!
I see nothing wrong with that.
Charitable contributions are not mandatory, and I certainly are NOT going to give to an organization that uses my gift to do something I consider reprehensible, like teaching left-wing progressivism.
I also would not give to abortion clinics or environmentalist organizations that hate humans.
My goodness, there are so many deserving charities that support my beliefs and way of life, why bother with the ones that don’t?
Of course, I am not a billionaire! LOL!
Considering what Rockefeller does for Harvard, it is very likely true.
Why not give the money to Auburn? They already host the Ludwig von Mises Institute. They seem to be doing a good job of promoting the Austrian School of Economics.
How horrible! People want to make sure the money they give isn’t used for purposes to which they object?
They already do push the worst of libertarianism, and unfortunately the easiest for the left/libertarians to win politically.
ooooo, those evil bastards. Meanwhile, Soros fumbles for his wallet.
I seriously doubt this story but if it’s true; so what?
If I claimed that all government functions could be done better by private industry or I claimed that all private industries could be done better by the government, which would be the greater error? Which would be more nearly correct and which could be logically defended and which could not be?
These are run of the mill strings. I know because I worked in the development group of a university with a multi-billion $ endowment.
The thing that most struck me is how restricted all that money was - they have billions, but can’t spend it on pretty much anything. Think of somebody dedicating a chair in the 1850s on the study of phrenology. That money has been sitting around for a while gathering interest but legally can’t be spent.
I remember that Princeton had a woman president from Canada. A family coughed up $25M to endow a chair on Western Civilization.
She spent the money (investment proceeds?) on everything but.
Ummmm.....what libertarian theology.....lol
A moron wrote this....absolute moron..
errr...ideology...
They probably are already.
why post their commie crap without a barf alert???
Those dang Koch boys. Always with some catch and trying to control everything. Next thing you know someone will accuse them of trying to buy congress. :>}
Already bought and paid for. What's happening now is merely resale.
In economics, the colleges and universities have been teaching Keynesian liberal pap for generations now..
They don’t teach Smith or anything from the Classical perspective, as they call it..
I had to learn it myself and papers written about any other option would often draw a D or F grade regardless of the quality of the arguments..
If true, the request by a donor is pretty simple..
Just teach both sided of the arguments, but they can and won’t do that, because to them, the other side has long been deemed economic heresy.
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