The economy promises us freedom. The question is: for whom does that promise still hold?

We live in a time of major challenges around security, geopolitics, raw materials, climate, biodiversity, innovation capacity and future earning potential. These themes are often treated as separate problems, but they stem from the way we make economic decisions and from what we do and do not count. That is also where the solution lies.

Freedom for the market, not for people

Freedom in the economy currently means freedom of the market. When freedom is equated with the market, policy is judged by what the market values. Political and economic decisions are therefore often assessed on growth, efficiency and competitiveness. Freedom itself is not weighed sufficiently: the freedom to find an affordable home, to start a new business, or to drink clean water from the tap.

Freedom only exists when its conditions exist, and those conditions are shaped by the economic decisions we make. The free-market economy promises freedom to everyone, while delivering it to fewer and fewer people.

Freedom Economics Foundation makes visible the freedom that is currently overlooked.