I reserve the right to be wrong.
But on the effects of economic freedom, I seriously doubt that I am...
It makes a pretty good case, but since you probably think this is some kind of conspiracy to extract your precious bodily fluids, here's the skinny on the Koch brothers, who funded this video.
I had a quick lookup of the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom on Wikipedia. The index is pretty much the one thing I really like from this organisation. While the HF are a Conservative think tank, and their thinking does not align with my own, the simple facts collected together in this index do.
It is imperfect, to say the least. Some criticisms in that article above include a poor correlation between a country's ranking in the Index and its real GDP growth. Fair enough, but since the example of a fast growing, economically unfree country was China, a country which is playing economic catch-up to the developed nations of the world, I don't find it an overpowering criticism.
Singapore is an interesting case, because according to the Index it's the 2nd freest economy in the world behind Hong Kong. However, we all know that Singapore is not actually a free society at all; homosexuality is illegal, public conduct and grooming standards are inculcated and even legally binding. Life is unpleasant for those who are different, and yet I wonder how many Singaporeans would jump at the chance to live in a less politically repressive but impoverished and corrupt nation like Ukraine...
But on the effects of economic freedom, I seriously doubt that I am...
I had a quick lookup of the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom on Wikipedia. The index is pretty much the one thing I really like from this organisation. While the HF are a Conservative think tank, and their thinking does not align with my own, the simple facts collected together in this index do.
It is imperfect, to say the least. Some criticisms in that article above include a poor correlation between a country's ranking in the Index and its real GDP growth. Fair enough, but since the example of a fast growing, economically unfree country was China, a country which is playing economic catch-up to the developed nations of the world, I don't find it an overpowering criticism.
Singapore is an interesting case, because according to the Index it's the 2nd freest economy in the world behind Hong Kong. However, we all know that Singapore is not actually a free society at all; homosexuality is illegal, public conduct and grooming standards are inculcated and even legally binding. Life is unpleasant for those who are different, and yet I wonder how many Singaporeans would jump at the chance to live in a less politically repressive but impoverished and corrupt nation like Ukraine...