The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), one of the oldest free-market organizations in the United States, was founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read to study and advance the freedom philosophy. FEE's mission is to offer the most consistent case for the "first principles" of freedom: the sanctity of private property,Foundation for Economic Education individual liberty, the rule of law, the free market, and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion.