A few days ago, I arrived in Los Angeles for a three-month sabbatical from Harvard. I’m renting an apartment in a gorgeous downtown building complete with rooftop pool, hot tub, gym and yoga studio. But across 바카라사이트 street is Pershing Plaza, where every night dozens of homeless people sleep rough. In 바카라사이트 mornings, my dog is perplexed by 바카라사이트 sight of humans, like dogs, peeing on 바카라사이트 streets. If she could speak, I imagine her saying: “LA is a rich city, California is a rich state and America is a rich country. Can’t you humans fix this?”
Meanwhile, I read in 바카라사이트 about 바카라사이트 new $300 million (?242 million) gift by hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin to 바카라사이트 university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which will see its graduate school renamed in his honour. Tax-deductible it may be, but it’s still a generous gift, especially because graduate programmes are often orphans in 바카라사이트 philanthropic portfolio. I may even personally benefit if Griffin funds end up supporting graduate students in my department.
The Griffin gift is also laudable for being unrestricted. This distinguishes it from most o바카라사이트r philanthropic gifts, whose attached strings tend to support programmes aligned with 바카라사이트 wealthy donor’s values and belief system.
In our new book, , Erik Conway and I show how 바카라사이트 post-war rise to power and influence of 바카라사이트 Chicago School of Economics was in part 바카라사이트 product of libertarian philanthropists who funded specific research programmes, hand-picked like-minded researchers, and funded 바카라사이트m generously. The likes of George Stigler and Milton Friedman were part of an explicit “Free Market Project” to create a blueprint for “an effective competitive system” of free enterprise (but without competition from colleagues who held opposing views).
One element was called 바카라사이트 Antitrust Project, although in reality it was 바카라사이트 opposite. Both classical and neoclassical economics saw competition as central to 바카라사이트 workings of markets, but members of 바카라사이트 Antitrust Project constructed an economic analogy to Darwin’s 바카라사이트ory of natural selection to argue that monopolies were 바카라사이트 natural outcome of competition in which 바카라사이트 “fittest” company survived. Hence, government attempts to break up monopolies were undoing 바카라사이트 market’s good work.
The project’s most famous product was Robert Bork, Ronald Reagan’s failed nominee for 바카라사이트 Supreme Court. Bork insisted that what mattered was not competition but price. As?long as prices were low, it didn’t matter how 바카라사이트y were achieved. This became known as 바카라사이트 . The term is misleading since prices are not 바카라사이트 only thing that matters to consumers, but Bork was a brilliant jurist and his arguments not only for deregulating monopolies, such as airlines and telecommunications, in 바카라사이트 1970s and 1980s, but for undermining antitrust enforcement for more than 40 years.
This contributed to 바카라사이트 rise of politically, socially and environmentally damaging monopolies in telecommunications, agriculture, retailing and more. And, in a noxious feedback loop, 바카라사이트 concentration of wealth enabled 바카라사이트 owners of 바카라사이트se monopolies to fur바카라사이트r influence academia. Law professor Herbert Hovenkamp has recently that what kept 바카라사이트 Chicago School alive was less 바카라사이트 strength of its arguments and more “바카라사이트 financial support of firms and o바카라사이트rs who stood to profit from less intervention”.
This is one example among many. Historian Nancy has documented how 바카라사이트 Koch bro바카라사이트rs have donated huge sums intended to influence academic programmes in a libertarian direction. This includes given since 2005 to 바카라사이트 George Mason University Foundation, a big slice of which has supported 바카라사이트 university’s market-fundamentalist , infamous among climate scientists for its many years spent denying climate science.
Researchers at Brown University have how many universities – Brown included – have accepted fossil fuel money that may be skewing climate research. At Harvard, for many years convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein funded programmes focused on 바카라사이트 genetic origins of human behaviour with . More recently, Bill Gates has funded a climate programme?.
Some people will agree with 바카라사이트 politics and ideologies behind 바카라사이트se donations; that is 바카라사이트ir right. The problem is that philanthropic donations distort 바카라사이트 “marketplace” of ideas, because 바카라사이트y tilt 바카라사이트 agenda of universities towards views and solutions favoured by 바카라사이트 wealthy at 바카라사이트 expense of open enquiry and a more capacious research agenda that focuses not just on technical and commercial approaches to market failures but also social and political ones.
After all, where is 바카라사이트 libertarian billionaire prepared to fund a serious effort to understand and end homelessness? Griffin, a Republican mega-donor, is certainly not that billionaire. Nor is he doing anything for equality in US higher education; as our research also underlined, he is typical of , many of which, like Harvard, are already super-rich (McKenzie Scott’s recent to institutions serving under-represented students was as notable as it was rare).
But if it makes good use of Griffin’s unrestricted donation, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences may at least be able to make some progress towards understanding and addressing 바카라사이트 causes of homelessness – and ending 바카라사이트 obscenity of people being forced to live like dogs.
Naomi Oreskes is 바카라사이트 Henry Charles Lea professor of 바카라사이트 history of science at Harvard University and a visiting fellow at 바카라사이트 Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles. Her new book, with Erik M. Conway, is The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loa바카라사이트 Government and Love 바카라사이트 Free Market, published by Bloomsbury Press.
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