Being Rather Than Seeming

The Pope Foundation’s new Achiever Spotlight tells the story of Travis Fisher, who became a free-market economist from the political left:

Travis Fisher experienced a political epiphany as a junior in college: He wanted to become an advocate for free markets.

Until then, Travis considered himself a confused, left-leaning moderate in his political philosophy. Then a two-fold revelation occurred — he began reading the works of the French classical liberal theorist Frederic Bastiat and he took a course in economics at N.C. State University. Both set him on the path to fiscal conservatism.

“I came to believe in free markets from the political left,” Travis said. “I remember thinking the way that Bastiat explained the economic harmony that emerges from free markets appealed to me the most.”

Soon afterward, Travis switched to an economics major — a decision that he’s never regretted. From the moment he took his first economics course, the subject matter clicked with him.

“That was an eye-opening moment when I really got the concepts, and when I started asking and exploring questions instead of just reading the material,” he said.