Index of Economic Freedom

[Cashcow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom

U.S. is 12th tied with Switzerland. China is interestingly high.

Thoughts?

[A18]

I'm stunned that we're even on this list. The world must be a far more bleak place than I had imagined if this country could actually rank #12 in economic freedom!

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I wouldn't call #112 out of 155 interestingly high, unless you are considering the #27 position to be that of China.

[Gabu]

Wow, Canada sure is an economically repressed, socialist country.  No doubt about it.  They were right all along.

[A18]

Wait, never mind. This "economic freedom index" is a joke.

The United Kingdom is a socialist hellhole and it's ranked above the United States? What idiot made this?

[Gabu]

What idiot made this?

The Heritage Foundation, a "conservative think tank" who were "a key champion of the Reagan Doctrine", apparently, and it was published in The Wall Street Journal.

[A18]

Oh. Well, okay then, but I don't know what they're calling 'economic freedom.'

[Gabu]

Oh. Well, okay then, but I don't know what they're calling 'economic freedom.'

Well, according to the page provided, they take 50 independent variables that are categorized in ten main sections:

    * Trade policy
    * Fiscal burden of government
    * Government intervention in the economy
    * Monetary policy
    * Capital flows and foreign investment
    * Banking and finance
    * Wages and prices
    * Property rights
    * Regulation
    * Informal Market Activity (Black market)

Each country gets a value for each variable and the countries' relative levels of freedom are then ranked accordingly.

It helps to read things that you're talking about, Philip.

[A18]

It would be nice if you could see a ranking in each of those individual fields. In my opinion, lumping them all together yields a result that is pretty meaningless.

[Richard]

It would be nice if you could see a ranking in each of those individual fields. In my opinion, lumping them all together yields a result that is pretty meaningless.

Yes, you hit it.  This collective summary statistic is quite meaningless.

[Jake]

Wow, Canada sure is an economically repressed, socialist country.  No doubt about it.  They were right all along.

We win, Canadians 16, USA 12

[European]

Ireland 5th.........

pretty good for a country that was almost bankrupt 23 years ago.

Jake: I think that having a rank of 12 is higher than 16 and so i think that the USA wins.

here a link:

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads.cfm

click the download past scors and you get a excel file of brakedowns going back to 1995.

it's intresting that in 1995 the US was 5th and in 2005 it's 13th while ireland has moved from 11th to 5th.

hemmm......

[Platypus]

Australia beat the US? Suits me.

[??????????]

I disagree with this. Tajikistan should be higher up.

[they don't love you like i love you]

The Signapore regime is #2. All the proof we need economic freedom does not make a country a good place. Signapore needs a coup real soon.

[Jake]

Ireland 5th.........

pretty good for a country that was almost bankrupt 23 years ago.

Jake: I think that having a rank of 12 is higher than 16 and so i think that the USA wins.

here a link:

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads.cfm

click the download past scors and you get a excel file of brakedowns going back to 1995.

it's intresting that in 1995 the US was 5th and in 2005 it's 13th while ireland has moved from 11th to 5th.

hemmm......

Yes, we, as in the US, beat Canada, but maybe I was ambiguous   We still win

[they don't love you like i love you]

Don't Malaysia and Indonesia have a lot of problems with Signapore?

Hopefully one of them will solve the problem. That nightmarish hellhole needs to be fixed pronto. Any government that bans gum doesn't deserve to exist.

[Gabu]

Wow, Canada sure is an economically repressed, socialist country.  No doubt about it.  They were right all along.

We win, Canadians 16, USA 12

I don't care if the USA is more economically free than Canada is.  My point was that if we were a "socialist nation", I don't think we'd be in the "free" column.  I think it is pretty obvious that the US is slightly more economically free; I'm not disputing that.

[they don't love you like i love you]

I'm suprised Sweden is under Free. Maybe they aren't as good as I thought. At least Spain's got the right idea, hopefully the new government will, take them down a few notches (side note: Zapatero ROCKS!). But this does show that calling Canada or those Scandinavian countries socialist is really stupid.

[Richard]

Don't Malaysia and Indonesia have a lot of problems with Signapore?

Hopefully one of them will solve the problem. That nightmarish hellhole needs to be fixed pronto. Any government that bans gum doesn't deserve to exist.

You know, Singapore is probably the safest, cleanest, and nicest country in Southeast Asia.  I lived there.  Their public transportation system is a socialist's wet dream, as well as their ban on guns and their high taxes.

[Platypus]

there public transport is amazing. Nothing is even 30 seconds late, and it is extremely frequent-like a train every three minutes.

Also, the city center is virtually void of cars.

But, that said, it is still a semi-fascist government.

[2952-0-0]

Singapore is amazing. No garbage on the streets, punctual transportation, taxes refunded. But still, there aren't many nations where you get an entrance card reading "death penalty for drug traficking" at the airport. And there are just too many No signs.

[European]

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Yes, we, as in the US, beat Canada, but maybe I was ambiguous   We still win

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That's cool jake.

I don't think that political freedom is counted in the survay.
The last survay that i've seen is from
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/tables.htm

the countries with a freedom score of 1.0 (free) are

Andorra
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Barbados
Belgium
Canada
Cyprus (G)
Denmark
Dominica
Finland
France
Germany
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Kiribati
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malta
Marshall Islands
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
San Marino
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Tuvalu
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay

singapore scores 4.5 (partly free)
china scores 6.5 (not free)

those that are not free score 7.0 are
Burma
Cuba
Iraq
Korea, North
Libya
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
Turkmenistan

[they don't love you like i love you]

Things are efficient in Signapore just as things were efficient in 1984.

Signapore is not too far away from 1984.

[opebo]

Things are efficient in Signapore just as things were efficient in 1984.

Signapore is not too far away from 1984.

Correct BRTD - I just got back from a three day trip to Singapore and it was fairly bad.  However, even though it is one of the least fun places in Southeast Asia, they do tolerate a fairly nice open sex industry!  So in some ways they're less unfree than the USA.  I also snuck over to the nearby Indonesian island of Batam for some fun.  Indonesian girls are really great - soooooo cooperative, and they look like Thai girls with bigger boobs.