Free Capitalist Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Free Capitalist Project (FCP) is a private civic organization with a formal membership of followers form a community of like minded capitalists all over the world but with the highest concentration of members in Utah, USA. The organization and its paid membership are dedicated to "13 Principles of Prosperity" which the organization claims can help its followers live financially prosperous lives and "The American Dream." The FCP teaches that these principles can be traced back through to the Founding Fathers of the United States and subsequently to all of the great civilizations of history. These principles form the basis of what the organization calls true capitalism or Laissez-faire Capitalism, and are used as the criteria to differentiate the ideals of the FCP from many of the typical critiques of so-called capitalism. The basics of the FCP are published in The Primer, a synopsis of the beliefs, ideas and standard of the Free Capitalist Project. The Primer is not publically available in book stores or on Amazon.com and is only sold by the organization.
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[edit] Origins
Founded in Provo, UT the organization official headquarters address is Washington D.C. The Project was established in 2004, by Claud R. Koerber. Koerber's motivation was to create an organization that taught individuals how to become financially free believing that, "A person (or a society) locked in serious financial bondage ultimately loses all other freedoms. A slave, while he may muse over the contemplated blessings of liberty, is still a slave."
In late 2004, Koerber was joined by Harold Leslie McGuire III (Les McGuire) a local businessman who he had met at a FCP weekend seminar. Koerber and McGuire began touring the country with the "Free Capitalist" seminar program organizing local forums and selling financial education throughout the remaining months of 2004 and through 2005.
Following a tragic plane accident in June of 2006 where McGuire and his business partner Richard Ray Hooper were killed along with the pilot of the plane (Blaine Pugmire), Koerber merged the community forums of the FCP (which met locally each Thursday night) with the Producer Revolution membership program created earlier by McGuire and his four other business partners.
[edit] Intellectual Foundation
The foundation of the FCP is related to Koerber's personal search for prosperity. He filed for bankruptcy in 2001 amid financial failure and alleged impropriety in connection with his business globalcentral.com. After settling the matter with the Wyoming Securities Division[1], Koerber started reading authors such as Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Cleon Skousen, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexandar Hamilton,John Adams, George Washington, James Madison, Frédéric Bastiat, H. Verlan Anderson, Mark Skousen, Thomas Sowell, Ludwig Von Mises, Ezra Taft Benson and Solomon Hueber.
Note: Koerber subseqently repaid his globalcentral.com investors - with interest, though not legally required to do so after bankruptcy to demonstrate his commitment to principle and his newfound prosperity.
[edit] Affiliations
The organization is non-partison and welcomes members of all political parties however it is heavily influenced by conservatives. The title the FCP prefers is simpy "Capitalist."
The FCP promotes a divinely inspired view of the United States and its founding documents (The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.) The FCP opposes what Koerber has described as the "Brain-Off Conspiracy", which includes those who support wealth redistribution, economic interventionism, socialism, communism, and fascism. The FCP claims that the "Consumer Condition" and the "scarcity" paradigm (widely accepted in American society as a result of the great depression) have significantly shaped the modern world, and it seeks to expose and eliminate this condition by teaching the "Producer Paradigm" and "Abundance" thinking among its members.
[edit] Free Capitalist Project and Producer Revolution Merger
After the plane crash of Les McGuire which resulted in his passing, The Producer Revolution forums have been merged together with the Free Capitalist Project. The forums meet together from 7:00 am - 9:00 pm every Thursday and are membership based organizations. A list of forums across Utah and Arizona can be found here: [2]
[edit] Free Capitalist Magazine
In January of 2006 the FCP began publishing Free Capitalist Magazine which is a public policy magazine dedicated to illustrating positive examples of capitalism at work in the world today. The magazine is edited by Paul Skousen (son of Cleon Skousen) former President Reagan CIA/White House Situation Room worker who left Washington D.C. as a direct result of the Iran-Contra Affair / Oliver North scandal.
[edit] Free Capitalist Radio
On October 31, 2005 Koerber paid for an hour of airtime from K-Talk AM630 and started broadcasting a daily Free Capitalist Radio program. Soon, after cutting a new deal, they were able to purchase a second hour and added McGuire and Gabriel Joseph as regular co-hosts. The program is also web-cast on the FCP website and has a regular listenership throughout the US states. The program split into two separate programs in May of 2006 with McGuire hosting "Producer Revolution Radio" for two hours - focusing primarily on the "Principles" and philosophy and Koerber hosting "Free Capitalist Radio" for two hours - focusing primarily discussing public policy from the perspective of capitalism rather than from a conservative or liberal view. The show has featured prominent guests such as former Virginia Senator George Allen, Utah Representative Chris Cannon, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Alan Keyes, and Colombia University Economist and Former Foundation for Economic Education president Dr. Mark Skousen.
[edit] Free Capitalist On-Line
The FCP maintains a news portal online with private content written by FCP staff members as well as regular news story links from across the web. The unique feature of the website is that each news story is ranked with a "relevancy factor" number 1-13 in reference the organizations 13 Principles of Prosperity. The website is edited by Abel Keogh.
