A Culture of Alarmism has emerged in this country in which government nannies, public health officials, and the media have generated hysteria about food, household products, and other supposed dangers that threaten Americans and their families. We’ve seen this kind of overreaction to specific ingredients like sugar or salt, the use of “chemicals” like BPA or silicone, crop biotechnology, the rise of new “disorders” affecting our children, and even with the energy sector over fracking and oil drilling. And legislators at all levels of government use this alarmism to justify new regulations and programs to expand their power and leave our country fundamentally less free.
We need strong voices to counteract this trend, to analyze and critique dubious studies, and to highlight the costs we pay for the over-regulation of American life in terms of higher prices, fewer choices, and less freedom. In particular, we need women who can speak to other women – the leading consumers of everything from groceries to cars – about these issues.
IWF’s Culture of Alarmism project is designed to expose and counteract this alarmism and, in the process, expand the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and to counter those who seek to ever-expand government in the name of protecting women.
As Washington's only free-market think thank staffed solely by women and dedicated to promoting economic growth, job creation, and “right-sizing” government, it does just that.