Thursday, December 27, 2012

Freedom

Sometimes people ask me why I value freedom so highly.  If giving up a few freedoms would make life a little easier, they say, why not go for the easy life?

My cerebral answer is that freedom is what drives the human spirit.  We psychologists talk of self-actualizing, they're talking about freedom.  Freedom is the precursor to human growth, it is the essence of what it means to be human.

That's the grand, one-over-the-world answer.  Here's a more practical one:
The Heritage Foundation calculates an Economic Freedom Index annually for countries around the world based on ten factors: business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government spending, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption, and labor freedom. With the index, one can compare the impact of economic freedom to quality of life measures.

The Heritage Foundation uses the index to break down the nations into five subgroups ranging from free economies to repressed economies. Based on the data, it is possible to compare the subgroups for factors such as average life expectancy, income and happiness. Table 1 shows the subgroups based on the 2010 index compared to the average life expectancy, per capita Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity), and the Gallup Happiness Index in the year the economic freedom index was calculated.

Practical evidence of my ethereal belief.  Libs can believe whatever they want, but reality is conservative.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed!

Anonymous said...

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland..

All more "free" (not sure what the standards used are) than the USA, and yet they are all way to the left in terms of public services, healthcare, education and the like than anything the "liberals" in the USA could dream of.

Darren said...

More gun control, too.

Just shows how fast the US is going down the drain, that we're rated as less free than places with overreaching socialist governments. What does that say about us?