Prometheus Institute

The Prometheus Institute is a moderate libertarian think tank based in Orange County, California. It produces free-market articles and other publications known for being geared more toward a younger, lay audience than the academic policy circles targeted by many other think tanks.

History and overview

The Prometheus Institute, or PI as it often refers to itself, was founded in 2003. Its website states that it exists to advance "unique, intelligent and creative perspectives on politics and culture." Its mission statement is to "establish libertarianism as an intellectually-viable political philosophy". The Institute brands itself as "socially liberal and fiscally conservative", spending most time supporting such positions as free trade, privatization, anti-censorship, privacy, decriminalization, and abortion rights. The relative youth of the staff (all executives are in their twenties), manifests itself often in the style and subject matter of the Institute's activities. Distinct from other think tanks, the Institute's writing and advocacy incorporates much popular culture, addressing political points in such traditionally apolitical subjects as rap music, golf, poker, baseball, technology, business and popular television. The institute often claims a subsidiary goal of engaging the younger, often apathetic Generation Y. The organization also publishes work of the more typical think tank style, including abstracts in political theory and research projects, although such activity is a minority output. The organization's work is listed as "essential" reading on the Cato Institute's student-oriented website.

On President's Day, 2008, the Prometheus Institute launched a new Web 2.0-style website and new domain name.

Positions and activities

The Prometheus Institute organizes the majority of its work into "PI Projects", consisting mostly of policy proposals and talking point positions on various issues. The Institute bills these proposals as "the most innovative, brilliant and effective policy proposals in the world", yet almost all are recycled proposals from other libertarian writers and organizations, such as the negative income tax (called the "Outcome Tax" by PI), private accounts for Social Security, a Pigouvian tax on pollution, school vouchers, and others. The Institute then forwards these same principles in its publications and activism.

On February 9, 2008, the Prometheus Institute joined Harvard economist Greg Mankiw's Pigou Club, which he calls "an elite group of economists and pundits with the good sense to have publicly advocated higher Pigovian taxes, such as gasoline taxes or carbon taxes."

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