Good Morning Michael! This is both troubling and fascinating at the same time....I note that Great Britain is tied with us in overall economic freedom, and a number of Nations that we would assume "economically free" also rank quite low.
Although I didn't buy the report, here is CATO's web page in the report: http://www.cato.org/economic-freedom-world On Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 8:24 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > > *The World's Most Free Countries: United States No Longer in Top Ten *October > 10, 2014 > > The Cato Institute has produced its annual "Economic Freedom of the World" > index, and the results are troubling. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute > reports the United States is no longer among the top 10 countries; it has > fallen to twelfth place, behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, > Switzerland, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, > Jordan, Chile and Finland. > > The United States' decline has been swift; it was ranked the second freest > nation in the world in just 2000. The rankings are calculated after > assessing the size of government, a country's legal structure, access to > sound money, free trade and regulation. Tanner explains why the United > States has fallen so far down the list: > > - The size of American government is only growing, and while it is not > as large as some European governments, it is bigger than governments in > Brazil and Mexico. The United States ranked 46th based on government size. > - In terms of free trade, the United States fell into 29th place. > - In 2005, the United States was scored as having the best sound money > policy in the world. But, thanks to years of quantitative easing, America > ranked 38th in the latest freedom index. > - In 1980, the United States ranked as having the best legal system > and system of property rights, and it was still in the top 10 as of 2000. > But in the latest report, the United States has fallen to 36th place, based > on the use of eminent domain, an increase in property seizures and property > rights violations as a result of the auto bailout. > - While the United States ranked in the top 10 for regulation, it has > dropped in recent years; in 2000, the United States was in second place. > > > Tanner reminds readers the economic freedom index does not take into > account a number of non-economic freedom issues: the surveillance state, > police militarization and a growing and intrusive government bureaucracy. > > Source: Michael Tanner, " Land of the Free? > <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389802/land-free-michael-tanner>" > National Review, October 8, 2014. > > > > http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=24945&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
