by Jack
Periodically, it’s wise to evaluate where we are in comparison to other Western nations in terms of personal and economic freedom. The Human Freedom Index or HFI is one of those helpful yard sticks. It presents a comprehensive measure of freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. “Absence of coercive constrain,” these are powerful words that play a major role in shaping our future.
The recent [HFI] is the most shocking to date, because the United States barely made it into the top 20! However, in part this was due to increased security measures resulting from events from 9/11 until present time. That part is more understandable than what follows: The sudden rise of socialism exacerbated that Great Recession and damaged this nation on many levels. President Obama promised to fundamentally change America and with the help of his democrats in Congress they through legislation and regulation they did. They have encroached on our privacy, limited entrepreneurship and wealth creation and given us a bloated bureaucracy with increasing wealth redistribution. It’s no accident that [freedom] is strongly correlated with prosperity, yet our left is charging full steam ahead into socialism?
“The Human Freedom Index (HFI) … presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. It uses 76 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom … The HFI covers 152 countries for 2012, the most recent year for which sufficient data is available. … The United States is ranked in 20th place. Other countries rank as follows: Germany (12), Chile (18), Japan (28), France (33), Singapore (43), South Africa (70), India (75), Brazil (82), Russia (111), China (132), Nigeria (139), Saudi Arabia (141), Venezuela (144), Zimbabwe (149), and Iran (152).”
“Countries in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantly higher per capita income ($30,006) than those in other quartiles; the per capita income in the least-free quartile is $2,615. The HFI finds a strong correlation between human freedom and democracy. Hong Kong is an outlier in this regard. The findings in the HFI suggest that freedom plays an important role in human well-being.”
The authors give equal weighting to both personal freedom and economic freedom: “One of the biggest challenges in constructing any index is the organization and weighting of the variables. Our guiding principle is that the structure should be simple and transparent. … The economic freedom index receives half the weight in the overall index, while safety and security and other personal freedoms that make up our personal freedom index receive the remaining weight.”
Words of caution: The original framers of our Constitution we very aware of protecting freedom because they previously lived under an autocratic rule. They weighed the personal responsibility that accompanies freedom verses security under the yoke of big government. They understood a citizens obligations to protect freedom so much better than today’s leftists that are promoting socialism.
James Madison warned that we needed a system that did not depend on the good intentions or motivations of our rulers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
Benjamin Franklin was more direct. In 1787, a Mrs. Powel confronted Franklin after the signing of the Constitution and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His response was a bit chilling: “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”
And who is driving the slip into the anti-freedom abyss? I give you two guesses, one does not count.
Who is About Post Scripts Cgeoyl65 and why should anyone follow that link?
I wonder if the greatest generation every thought there would be a day that citizens of Germany would enjoy more freedom than those of us in the United States. How terribly sad that we let ourselves fall so low. California was ranked as one of the least free states in the US a few years ago as well.
And why not? Freedom is scary. Freedom doesn’t pay the bills or keep a roof over your head. A lot of people will trade their freedom for the imaginary security of government entitlements. It’s really great until money gets tight or they want to control your behavior for that check.
I posted on FB today about a rancher in Wyoming being fined millions by the EPA for building a pond on his own property. In Butte County you almost need a contractor to help wade through the bureaucracy if you want to build a barn now. Governor Brown and the CA democrats are coming up with new legislation to take away more of your economic freedom in the name of global warming too. Freedom be damned.
Our country can be rebuilt but not without drastic change. There’s a growing number of people who see this and they are bucking the two party system for a candidate with a big name and bad hair, and I don’t mean Hillary Clinton. If he gets elected and doesn’t deliver, I fear for what will happen next.
There’s probably enough anger amongst the voters to start a revolution, but not enough to elect a good president.
Steve, is Angela is going to work the rodeo again this year? Shari and I are going over Sunday afternoon. Oh, and I agree with your comments!
I don’t think Angela is working this one. We will be working the Republican and foster care booths though so you might see us. There is a particular rodeo coordinator we have sometimes worked with I haven’t heard if he’s handling this one. Should still be fun though.
Jack, you say we scored low on the list due to the “sudden rise of socialism” since the Great Recession, but look at the other countries on that list. Do you really believe we are more socialist than Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Finland, the UK, and the Netherlands?
Doesn’t the fact that all of those openly socialist countries score higher than us at least prove that the makers of this list don’t believe socialism constrains freedom?
The #1 country on that list is Communist.
Numbers 2 – 14 (and others) are Socialist.
Did you think this through before you posted it?
Jack, you say that the “rise of socialism” under Obama is partly responsible for our low rating on this list. How can that be when so many openly socialist countries rank higher? Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark…all are socialist countries with higher taxes, more social welfare, and universal healthcare. Not to mention most of them have much more restrictive gun laws.
Do you agree with this list that these socialist countries are more free than America? If so, why?
Ech, sorry–I thought my first comment got lost, but now I see it’s awaiting moderation. Disregard my second comment.
This page and this one will put the rankings into perspective.
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Take Denmark as an example. Denmark scores a 95. vs US 80. on property rights. Our oppressive, unnecessary EPA regs, high investment taxes, high unemployment, and the lingering effects of the housing loan debacle are killing us.
In government spending we do much better, which is frightening because Denmark’s score spells out our future as we move deeper into big government control: Denmark 39.6 vs 66.2 US. In a nation founded on freedom 66.2 is deplorable!
Regarding corruption it’s Denmark 96. vs 73. US
Business freedom : Denmark 1.8 vs 88.8 US. Again Denmark’s score is where we are heading.
Labor freedom: Denmark 92.1 vs 98.5 US
Investment freedom: Denmark 90.0 vs 70.0 US. Whoop there it is!
Financial freedom: Denmark 80.0 vs 70.0 US. Whoop, there it is again.
Unless radical changes are made in policy the US will plunge into the bottom rungs of socialist nirvana. At a time when many socialist nations are moving toward greater freedom the US made a very stupid move and elected a radical socialist…twice!
Jack your observations are exactly right.
Tina, are you arguing that the U.S. under Obama has been more socialist than Denmark?
Chris I am arguing that socialist policies, which have been strong under Obama, are putting us on a faster track toward total government dominance and control in our lives…which translates to lost personal freedom.
We’ve been on the track for some time, chugging along and adding one socialist program after another. Republicans have contributed to this too, due to there being center right (Rhino’s), intimidated by left tactics and press bias, or weakness in the fight. The Republican Party has lost it’s way along the way.
In nineteen 1998 we ranked #5, tied with Switzerland. By 2008 we had dropped to # 17, and in 2012 we occupied 20th place.
CATO:
In 1998 we were doing better:
Freedom is such a valuable thing. The ideal condition is every citizen capable of caring for himself/his family, contributing to society, and living a crime free life. I would sooner enact policies that move Americans in that direction, wouldn’t you?
Tina, how do you account for the fact that so many socialist countries rank higher in terms of freedom on that list?
Do you think the list is in error? Or do you think we should adopt policies similar to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc?
Chris: “… how do you account for the fact that so many socialist countries rank higher in terms of freedom on that list?”
Chris I thought I did a fairly good job (with limited space and time) in my comment above where I compared the US to Denmark.
A few random thoughts:
The world is made up of socialist and totalitarian nations. As we enact more restricting, intrusive policies doesn’t it make sense that some of them will rise above us in terms of freedom? There’s the nation as was founded and then there’s the nation we’ve sadly become.
Economic freedom accounts for a lot. Our investment and corporate taxes are very high compared to others in the world. This has impacted jobs and opportunity greatly and thrown millions of our people into poverty and dependence on government. The administration cherry picks and manipulates figures to claim otherwise. Often economic figures, for growth for instance, are later adjusted downward. It really IS as bad as we have said it is.
Regulations are also an indicator of loss of freedom. Our government is extremely bloated when it comes to regulations in every single area of our lives.
I hate covert questions like: Do you think the list is in error? Or do you think we should adopt policies similar to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc?
The covert accusation is that I don’t really know what I’m talking about and you think you’ve tripped me up. I’d say that’s because you know almost nothing about the index, not to mention what it means to be free.
I don’t think the list is in error.
If cutting tax rates and bureaucracy is what you mean by adopting policies similar to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc, then yes, I do think we should do that. If you mean more government control of business and universal healthcare then NO…that would only move us further down the socialist black hole.
Have you given any consideration at all to how greatly the economies of other nations depend on the strength of ours?
Now would you please answer my question: