Economic Freedom Index

 The Fraser Institute Human Freedom Index was created to showcase the ranks of countries on freedom from a scale of 0-10. The ranking indicates zero as not being free at all and 10 representing the most freedom. The top 5 free countries include New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Canada, and Australia. Are you surprised the United States is not in the top five?  

However, North America does have the highest women specific freedoms and the highest level of freedom overall. Countries with more freedom have higher overall incomes. The correlation between democracy and freedom was very high in the Fraser Institutes studies, but Hong Kong was the outlier in this information. America landed in the fifteenth spot on the HFI. Democracy and freedom are correlated, but The U.S. has a large and modern government. Is the government intervening too much? 

The economist Diedre McCloskey does believe that some intervention by the government is obviously necessary. Governments that reach a certain size and stature eventually end up becoming reliant on coercion. As McCloskey puts it, “Taxing its citizens, bombing foreigners, jailing pot smokers...”. The American people will have civil unrest if the government does not limit its intervention, high levels of police order, the military industrial complex, and deficit spending. The U.S is classified as a wealthy country, but if it does not act like it the freedom and liberty of the American people can be at jeopardy.  

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/economic-freedom

McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen. “Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All.” Amazon, Yale University Press, 2019, www.amazon.com/Why-Liberalism-Works-Liberal-Prosperous/dp/0300235089.