Which country has more freedom?

[Gabu]

B w/o a doubt.  The key is government sanctioned and taxes.  Country B not only maintains individual economic freedom, but it does not restrict business.  The government is doing nothing to restrict freedom.

The fact that the government is doing nothing to restrict freedom does not mean that freedom is unrestricted.

One of the biggest gripes I have with economic libertarians is the way in which they seem to believe that not government = necessarily good in every situation.

[Gabu]

Country B is more free. 

You don't HAVE to purchase things with a credit card.  You don't HAVE to surf the internet leaving cookies everywhere.  You don't HAVE to do buisness with companies that sell your info to the highest bidder.  In Country A, you HAVE to pay higher taxes and buiseness HAVE to deal with strict govt interference.  You are more free, by far, in country B.

You don't HAVE to... if you're fine with living in a cave.

Given how much of my time is already taken up by answering the phone only to find a telemarketer on the other end, I shudder to think of what country B would be like.

[Gabu]

Neither are free enough, but B is more free.

That would be correct. But what if what the corporations find out about you could be used to prosecute you without a warrant?

But that wasn't the question.  Still B though because you don't HAVE to do business with companies that gather, sell and trade your info.

Well, okay, but the absolute demand of "freedom for the sake of freedom" is not really any better than others and probably worse. I like freedom, but I am willing to see where small compromises are a better idea. And don't come back at me with a Ben Franklin quote; the Founders were well aware of the Social Contract.

I've always seen freedom as a means to an end, not an end in itself.  That end being, of course, the ability of people to pursue and obtain happiness, which is really the only thing that matters in life in the end.  If a particular freedom is actively impeding that end, then I would say that it is not a good freedom.

Everyone supports restriction of freedoms in some way.  You wouldn't be able to support the incarceration of criminals if you didn't, since that is obviously impeding their freedom.