Libera

Today, all around the world innovative independent think tanks are at the cutting edge of public discourse and I am delighted that with Libera, Finland is truly embracing this new and important institutional trend.

Think tanks play a vital role in civil society. Independent of vested interests and funded by a wide range of sources with no one industry sector or individual dominating they are free to tilt at windmills and slay sacred cows.

Capitalism refers to a legal, social, economic, and cultural system that embraces equality of rights and “careers open to talent” and that energizes decentralized innovation and processes of trial and error through the voluntary processes of market exchange.

If people would be angels, liberty would be assured and societal problems would be non-existent. If people would be rascals, only the head-rascals may enjoy some freedom. A free society would be beyond imagination. Real people reside somewhere in between.

Equality before the law and respect for private property are the basic building blocks of human life. Libera’s mission is to support and advance civil society but also to remind of the responsibilities which go along with it.